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 80: Courageous Lions

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The other night I was surfing the TV and there was the Wizard of Oz. It’s almost impossible to not stop for at least a few minutes and watch. My favorite part of the movie is where the cowardly lion is coming to grips with his own lack of courage. In the movie he finds his courage with the medal that is given to him by the Wizard of Oz. I have known in my career a few cowardly lions at work. These were people who just wouldn’t step forward with their point of view until someone else would validate them or give them license to speak or express themselves. There is no reason to not have courage and to not be confident in yourself and who you are. We are told this is in Psalm 31:24: “So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord!” Unlike the cowardly lion, or those who feel as though they need validation, we already have our validation with the hope we put in our Lord. Like yesterday’s setting of our priorities post, we have to start with ourselves inside first and then we can outwardly change. We are put in situations each and every day to express courage and to be strong in who we are and in our faith. Take heed today in the office that we can have true hope that allows us to have that unique and significant strength and courage so that we can be a courageous lion at work!

Reference: Psalm 31:24 (New Living Testament)