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 177: Landscaping

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Part of doing business is creating the environment that we ask people to work within. For most companies they don’t have to worry about the outside of the building because they rent office space, etc. But for some the landscaping is all part of the environment that sends the overall message to the employees about how the company is doing. I remember when one of my CEOs asked me if I wanted to manage the facilities department. I said, “no”. But, I also said that I would take it on because it gave me responsibility for the “environment”, which I thought was important for the overall culture and attitude of how people would feel about the company. Years later a friend was walking on our campus and she commented on how well the company must be doing and I said, “why is that?” She went on to tell me that with her company any time there were any type of expense cuts to be made the first thing to go were the flowers, the grass mowing frequency, etc. Everyone could tell how the company was doing by the condition of the landscaping. There are many signs on how we all are doing in our work, including the attitude and outlook of each of us as we work throughout the day. The reflection of our emotions in how we treat other people and how they see us interacting and responding to challenges and problems is important. In Jeremiah each of us are compared to the impact that we can have as part of the landscaping of our companies and to those around us; “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank.” There is nothing more beautiful, serene and inviting than sitting under a tree beside a riverbank. Imagine that our companies were filled with more of these types of people who were inviting, peaceful, calm, strong and steadfast. We can be and should be those people. We can be that part of the landscaping for others. All we have to do is put our trust where our trust should be; in the Lord with all of our hope and confidence directed towards Him. May today you be as strong and steadfast as the riverbank tree!

Reference: Jeremiah 17:7-8 (New Living Testament)