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 97: Judgment Calls

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Wouldn’t it be great if everyone at work did everything the way you wanted it done? What utopia it would be to come into the office every morning and know that the day would be arranged exactly to your liking, meetings ran just the way you desired, presentations were created exactly how you would have made the presentation yourself, the schedule took into consideration all of the time off that you needed first, and on and on. But work doesn’t work that way. Even when you are the CEO or the boss no one does everything exactly to your liking and specification. How nice that would be, but alas it is not to be. As a co-worker it’s the same way. We depend on others and think they will think and act like we would, but they are of independent mind as well and things just get done differently. And when any of this happens and we aren’t happy about how someone else approaches a task or issue and things don’t go the way that we want them to, we then have to make a decision on what our response will be. I have seen over the years that the approach most often taken is the one that causes the most long term damage. It is to be judgmental of others. It seems easy to speak out and call someone for not doing it like we would have and consequentially tear them down versus building them up. When we are judgmental we are running counter to direction we are given in Luke 6:42: “…How can you think of saying, Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye, when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?” You see, that is the missing secret in all of this. For every judgement we pass on others, there are many that can be passed back to us, but for the grace of God someone has just decided to not so as of yet. A grade-school teacher taught me that when you point your index finger at someone else that at least three of your other fingers are pointing right back at you. 3:1 is not a good ratio. Today when things are not going your way and you have the choice to be judgemental or not think about the call you are about to make. A moment of hesitation before the finger gets pulled out could be the difference between the judgement coming your way the next time or not. And even more so, deciding to not be judgmental of others but instead to find another way to get the point across could be a very important life-moment for the person on the receiving end. The example of how to not be judgemental can be way more powerful than the way that is most easily, and unfortunately, more often taken.

Reference: Luke 6:42 (New Living Testament)