Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 179: Attitude Adjustment

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If you lined up 10 people at work and asked them how many are happy to be at work, it might look like a baseball statistic. You would be pleased to get .300 and might be ecstatic to get .400. I don’t know the reason why, but it seems like people lock their happiness and joy in their glove box before they go into the office. And what is even more interesting is how we each just accept that it’s okay for someone to be grouchy at work. We don’t stop and go out of our way to cheer someone up. Instead we see the grumpy person and we either just leave them alone or we let them drag us down with them. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can be the countervailing force against grumpiness and a down-attitude. All it really takes is a commitment to bring some of our joy and happiness to work and become a positive alternative for others. When this becomes too hard to do or even remember to do, then draw on this verse; “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” As we work so hard to bring our purpose to work remember that always being joyful is part of God’s will for each of us. Today you are going to come in contact with someone who is down on their job, down on others, or just down on life. They are letting you and others know with their words and actions that something is “just not right”. While it is counter-intuitive, they are looking for someone or something to cheer them up. Your extra time, your extra words, your extra ear, your extra smile might be just the antidote to what it is that is bothering them today. Your joy can be contagious and bring an attitude adjustment to your office. And from there you may get a chance to add to the conversation the influences in your life that give you the joy that you have.

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (New Living Testament)