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 115: It’s A Matter Of Focus

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In the business world we do lots of things to try and bring focus to our enterprises and to our work. We create multiple year, forward-looking strategic plans with vision and mission statements that inspire and delineate who and what we are all about. We then turn those strategic plans into annual operating plans that provide even greater clarity to what it is that we are to be doing for the year and within the four quarters of a fiscal year. Many organizations will go even further and distill those documents down into individual roles and responsibilities to ensure that everyone in the company is aligned and all rowing in the same direction. All of this is done to provide focus. Focus is what makes things get done, or not. We all know when we are in the groove and focused and how that feels. Not to mention, the amount of work that gets done when we are in those zones. And, we know what it feels like when we are not focused and we find ourselves scattered in our thoughts and actions. It is in those times that we don’t get much, if anything, accomplished. As we try and bring our purpose into our work it is just as important that we focus and we know what to focus upon from the bigger perspective. In Proverbs 21:21 we are given areas to focus and we are also given the outcomes and benefits of that focus: “Whoever pursues godliness and unfailing love will find life, godliness, and honor.” I found this verse pertinent to work as the verse clearly states that to reveal something you must focus on finding it first. The verse says that if you want to find godliness, you must focus and pursue godliness. And if we do so, then we not only receive that blessing we also receive the added bonuses of finding life and honor. That is a great return on the investment! But without that focus of pursuit, then we will come up short and not find the godliness that we seek. That being the godliness that we want to take to work with us daily to be the example and model of God that we worship and follow. So, it is a matter of focus and removing the other areas in our lives that defocus us from pursing godliness. Today, at work, ponder these words and see if there is an area that you need to defocus so you can focus on pursuing the godliness and unfailing love which comes from our Lord. You may find that with even just a little sharper focus that you may see things that you have not seen before and find a time and place at work today to exercise godliness and His unfailing love.

Reference: Proverbs 21:21 (New Living Testament)