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 96: Behind The Scenes

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There is always someone behind the scenes who is doing a lot of heavy lifting and hard work but who is rarely seen or noticed. Occasionally at work the unsung heroes get called out and invariably everyone is so appreciative that a standing ovation and lots of recognition is given out to them. And then, the moment passes and we all go back to our jobs and we tend to once again forget the unsung. Instead of remembering and continuing to build up those who are not in the spotlight, we head back to our work and look for how we can land in the spotlight ourselves. It’s just the way that work works. There is a different approach that we can take and it is one that will be fulfilling both to us and to others. Paul says in Romans 15:2: “We should please others. If we do what helps them, we will build them up in the Lord”. What he is saying is that if we are really serious about building up others then we need to worry about pleasing and helping them versus worrying about pleasing and helping ourselves. It’s in our human nature to think first of ourselves and second about others, but it is supposed to be the other way around. We all have brothers and sisters in faith who we know in our workplace. If we want to build them up in the Lord and help them be stronger and more effective as witnesses and examples, then we need to reach out to them and ensure that we understand what help they need and then go about providing them this assistance. And we should not stop there. We should do this for all of our co-workers as we strive to build them up and ensure that they can see through us the example of a life well-lived and different than the rest. There will be many opportunities today to practice this principle. Pick one or two and intentionally go out of your way to help and please and then watch what happens. I suspect that you will like the outcome and even more so, the person who you are helping will receive far more assistance than what is obvious at the moment. Is it time for you to become a behind the scenes builder of others?

Reference: Romans 15:2 (New Living Testament)