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 2874: Passing The Baton

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“But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.”

I’ve noticed that it is harder in this digital/remote working to pass the baton successfully.  What do I mean by that?  It goes like this. We are on a Zoom call with a group of people.  A discussion ensues and along the way someone says, “I can take that part and run with it.”  In a “in real life” (IRL) moment what might happen is that the room would check itself to be sure that everyone is okay with that move, looking for body language, eye movements, etc.  An adept leader if they sensed hesitation would bring about more conversation before committing to the action and handing the baton to the person who wants it.  But in the digital world, we are struggling for that same assessment moment and unless someone who disagrees or thinks differently, raises their hand and is overt, the cues are missed and we move on.  It seems like a small thing, but it’s not.  If we want true alignment and commitment then we need to be sure that who is giving the baton is as ready to give it up as the person is who is taking it next.  Anyone who has ever watched a relay race knows how critical the baton transfer moment is and we should be paying that same level of attention daily to how we pass our work batons.

We know we are to wait on the Lord and I many times read this as sitting, holding and not taking action.  But lately, I have thought about this differently.  I don’t think we are to “stop” all the time.  Maybe sometimes we need to do so, but if we stop or stall at every moment of uncertainty, then we run the risk of losing any of the momentum we have gained.  So, as paradoxical as it sounds, we can keep moving and still wait. Think again about a relay race and the passing of the baton. The baton gets passed with two runners finding a moment of synchronization and trust to pass the baton.  Can it be like that with God?  If we are to source our strength and our next move from the Lord, which we are, we cannot run ahead of Him and think that He is going to “run” faster to catch up with us. We are the runner whose next leg of the relay is to secure the baton from the runner behind us.  We need to be timed to receive the baton, keep the momentum going and then carry the baton forward. If God’s strength comes from Him passing the baton to us, then we have no choice but to conform to His speed and His release of the baton to us.  If we run away from Him, empty handed, then this race of life we are running will not finish the way He desires for us, which is to finish well.  If today we feel like we are waning or weak in our run, then keep going but let’s remember that He is coming and ready to hand off the baton of strength soon if we will only pace ourselves to “wait” on Him.

Reference: Isaiah 40:31 (New Living Translation)