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 2884: Speak Up

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“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.”

We many times think of “speaking up” being for those in what we might call the bigger societal issues and causes. And yes we should, but we also need to be attuned and open to those within our workplaces who might be the victims of injustice or feel helpless to speak up for themselves. I was having a conversation over the weekend with the Chair of a Board and she was describing that she feels that in the virtual work environment that it is becoming harder and harder for people to speak up about a problem or an issue that they are facing.  I got thinking about that too and can see how someone who can’t just walk down the hall and close the door and sit with someone else and talk out a problem, might just keep it to themselves and as the problem festers they feel more and more helpless to finding a resolution.  This is only exacerbated with conflict or mistreatment from another employee.  It begs the question on how conflict resolution channels can best be opened up so that issues are highlighted quickly and effectively.

In Proverbs we are challenged to the be the ones who speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. To follow this takes an extreme amount of empathy and commitment to caring and working on the behalf of others. It’s easy to dismiss the needs of others with “they should just speak up”.  It’s way harder to spend the time to understand whether or not they actually can, or can’t speak up and if not, then step in and speak up for them.  If we love God and love others, it’s a Proverb that can’t be ignored.

Reference: Proverbs 31: 8-9 (New Living Translation)