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 111: Please, Keep Your Voice Down!

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They are infamous in companies. We all know a story or two of the “screaming boss or person”. This is the person who everyone knows that when tension rises that they will be the first one to pound the table, raise their voice and let out a stream of words at such a decibel level that everyone quakes and shakes. They are so predictable that we expect it and we brace and ready for the outbursts. I once had an executive that worked for me who was like this. We all chalked it up to his cultural background and the passion that comes with where he was raised and from, and I would just slough it off as “oh, it’s just (name inserted), he’s just really passionate about what we do”. In hindsight I made the mistake of not sitting him down and letting him know that he was losing respect from others each time he would go off on a tirade. Part of the reason I let it go was that very seldom was the outburst filled with expletives, it was just old-fashioned voice raising to make a point. Even then though, it was not good and it alienated others from him that had I intervened, he would have been better as an executive, leader and person. Most of the people who make shouting and hollering part of their work day got there because no one ever stopped them when they were early in their careers and then after a while it becomes part of who they are. There is a extremely well-known, household name CEO who is an over-the-top ranter and raver (he is even worse as he has been known to throw things at people). He is so bad that one of the companies that he is on the Board of moves meetings when he is in the building to an out of the way conference room so that when he gets going others can’t hear him. I doubt he even knows this happens, but everyone inside of that company does, as well as others who hear the story externally. Guess what? We are not to be screamers! That probably doesn’t come as a surprise does it? In Matthew Chapter 12:19, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah’s description of the coming Messiah: “He will not fight or shout, he will not raise his voice in public.” God sent those words to Isaiah to predict the coming characteristics of Jesus. These are the words that we are to follow as we strive to live the life that Jesus lived. When we are at work we are in the most public eye of all as others are watching our each and every move. When we raise our voices and allow ourselves to shout over others, we are sending the wrong message of who we want to be. Today, think about if you, or someone who works with you, or works for you, has the tendency to get a little over-excited. See what you can do to help them curb this behavior. And, if it is you, then it is clear, “please keep your voice down!”

Reference: Matthew 12:19 (New Living Testament)