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 55: Work Words, part 1 – No Nos

purposed worKING No Comments

This is pretty straightforward. Let’s choose more carefully the words we use at work. We all know the statement, “he curses like a sailor”. How does one become a sailor? A sailor becomes a sailor because he/she applies for a sailor job or joins the Navy to take the job of a sailor. So, the cursing of the sailor is referencing the cursing that occurs on the job. Yes, work for some reason is an easy place for the words of a sailor to become common language. I have been there and I have gone through stages in my career where I might as well have quit my job and joined the Navy. If we are trying to infuse our purpose into our work and we are trying to be the examples of how one is to supposed to live in a larger context then the words we choose to use at work need to be consistent with the life we are wanting to live. Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 4:29; “Don’t use foul or abusive language.” Clear enough? There is lots to learn and study on self-control and the taming of our tongues and how for some this takes God really helping out. But wherever you are and however hard or easy it is for you to control your language, it is an important lesson to remember. We are to live our lives in the example of the One who gave us His example to follow. And when the moment comes where the expletive is the most cultural, hippest and for some reason the most powerful word we can think of, then we need to think again and bite that tongue before we let the words roll out. Once out they can’t be rolled back in. Today, say a prayer before heading to work that God will give you different words today to replace those that come most easily. Ask Him to give you new work words and to send the words of the sailors out to sea.
Tomorrow, words to use as replacements.

Reference: Ephesians 4:29 (New Living Testament)