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 2869: From A Distance

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“And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

As I listen to and consult with business leaders, I can hear the concerns and challenges of leading and managing a distanced workforce. It’s not the productivity side that is the most worrisome, it’s the engagement of the “spirit” of the person that they are grappling with most.  How do we connect or stay connected with those who are at a distance.  I always loved the line in the movie “The Big Chill” that Kevin Kline’s character delivers as he talks about college friendships; “”Neither time nor distance can break the bonds that we feel”  It’s a great movie line because it is only true about the same amount of times that it happens in a movie.  Time and distance can keep us apart, even tear us apart if we are not very careful and attentive.  Yes, we are going to have to work a lot harder to overcome and thwart distance and it will take many creative efforts, extra energy and time we’d like to spend elsewhere, but it’s going to be a must do, not a nice to  do for all of us.

The Prophet Isaiah saw it coming.  The Lord told him that if we are distanced in our heart from the Lord, that no matter what comes from their mouths, that we are not the Lord’s as He desires us to be.  I know, sometimes it can feel that we are here, God is out there and in between us and Him is all of the stuff of the world that we must deal with.  But, that is not His design nor way.  His is that He is here, in our hearts with us and then outside of us is the world.  It’s why we are called to stay close, today and every day.  And yes, it takes the same extra efforts and energy to do so, but when we do, His love, peace and guidance will feel near.

Reference: Isaiah 29:13 (New Living Translation)