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 51: Don’t Let it Linger

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I woke up this morning and did a quick inventory of how I felt and what my emotions were going to be into this day. Fortunately, this was a day where my head and emotions were clear and I was optimistic about the day. Ah, wouldn’t it be great if each and every day felt that way. Wishful thinking, yes. One of the best ways to control how you feel in the morning, and how you will feel on your way to work in the morning, is to be sure that all of the unfinished business that might drag you down has been taken care of the night before. What really makes the day the worst is when you go into the office knowing that you are harboring feelings of anger about something that happened prior and you just aren’t over it yet. You might even be talking to yourself on your way to work, preparing for the fight that is going to occur. The Bible tells us to not start our day that way and to ensure you don’t by taking care of things the day before. Ephesians 4:26 says, ” And don’t sin by letting anger gain control over you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry…”. I always heard this verse in the context of marriage and it certainly is true there, but it holds true for work as well. If you allow yourself to carry anger home and into the night, not only will you have subjected your family to something that they never asked for or deserved, but you will have that same anger sitting with you in the morning and it will shape the rest of your day. We all know people who come to work who are ready to battle. We don’t want to be or live that example. So, today, see if you can clean out that anger locker before you go home and leave it all at the office, even if that means getting around to those today who you feel have wronged you and cleaning up the situation. It will be worthwhile and tonight and tomorrow will be better for it.

Reference: Ephesians 4:26 (New Living Testament)