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 6: Decent and True, part 1

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How easy it is at work to lose two core values; decency and truthfulness. Whether it be the words from our mouths that cross these values or how we treat one another, these two values are ones that can either build or lose your reputation in the workplace. Let’s start with decency. There is decency with a capital D that for me is the obvious conforming with the laws of decency. At work there are plenty of policies today that will tell you what these are. Just the training of sexual harassment is enough to guide you for what is acceptable at work or not. But there are other forms of decency that must be observed. How one treats or talks about their peers, their boss, and/or their staff members, can cross a line of decency that is damaging beyond repair. We take it so often for granted that the back-biting or talking down to others is just common place for business today. Being decent to others is a higher form of being a good person. Another form of decency is in the words that we choose to use. When I became the CEO of SNOCAP in 2005 I made the decision that I was going to change my vocabulary (more like clean it up) and not use profane words in the workplace. I was not always perfect but what I did notice that was without ever saying anything to anyone about my expectations of them as to their language, I noticed that if I didn’t curse, they didn’t curse. And if they did, it was usually followed by an apology to the group. Believe me, in my business career, I have said it all and heard it all too, so I’m not a Puritan or a prude. Instead, I try and follow what Paul had to say in Romans 13:13, “We should be decent and true in everything, so that everyone can approve of our behavior”. You see, when you are decent at work you get a high approval rating. It’s foundational and the perfect place to start as you work to be approved in what you do. It’s a simple lesson but I recognize not as simple to implement. However, today is as good of a day as any to change out the indecent words that you might use and be sure to do like my father taught me, “if you don’t have anything good to say about someone else, just don’t say anything at all”.

Reference – Romans 13:13 (New Living Testament)