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 64: Our Response

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Work is filled with back-biting, accusations, taunting and sometimes what can feel like downright slandering. It happens all the time as emails fly around and meetings are held without the knowledge of everyone, or the closed door sessions happen when you can’t be there to defend yourself. It gets really hard in these circumstances to take the higher ground and not fall into the trap of wanting to lash back out. We know we shouldn’t but it can be so deeply ingrained in the culture of the company to do so, that we feel like we have to battle to hold our own ground. Not all work places are like this, but more have this characteristic than you would imagine. So how are we to manage in this environment and still keep our purposed working lives pure? Paul gives us a verse in Ephesians 4:15: “Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ…”. We know that the ultimate truth which is found in God outweighs all of the untruths and around us daily. We also know that the response of love is always more powerful than the retort or the loss of control in anger or retribution. If we can find ourselves continuously rooted in truth and love then all of the situations we face will be of little consequence in the long-run. In the short-run as we live and work day-to-day we can take confidence knowing that if we stay on the side of truth and love that our attackers have less ammunition and their attacks will be received with much less satisfaction. In our responses to how things and people come after us at work, we can stay rooted in truth and love, then even those who make an enjoyment of building controversy will find other targets. So, today, think through the responses that you will make and the attitude that others will see coming from you. Can they see that you are one who cares only about the truth and love?

Reference: Ephesians 4:15 (New Living Testament)