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 2719: Countering The Bad Boss

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“No, O people, the Lord has already told you what is good, and this is what He requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God”

Friday I mentioned that the world is full of pompous, egotistical, narcissistic, selfish and arrogant people in very important and powerful leadership positions. And, we might just work for one. So, what are we to do with that working relationship?  How are we to navigate through not only the long term side effects of working with that type of person, but also the short term, day to day interactions?  While no one size answer fits all, I have found that the best way to counteract this kind of boss is to be just the opposite, constantly checking ourselves to not slip into their shadow or their ways.  It’s so easy to do so and so hard to not.  I once worked for a boss whose ego was so large that he had no problem lying and making up things to ensure that he never looked wrong or guilty of failing. He’d flat out lie when asked if he had talked to someone who he hadn’t. My response was that I went out of my way to be “overly humble” and not afraid to air out my mistakes and failings.  We’d be in a meeting and he would state one of his infamous cover ups and then when it was my turn to report, I went out of the way to state all of the things I had not done well that week.  I said things like, “I meant to get back to them, but I couldn’t and instead of telling everyone I did, I’m letting you know that I dropped the ball.”  I still remember the stare I got from the boss, who knew what I was doing.  Now, was that being humble?  Well…maybe, not totally, but it was trying to use humility to send a message and a message it did send.

The point is that when we call upon God to lead and direct us and we surrender our egos to Him, He will allow us to find a place of humility to walk with Him. This is Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., so let’s start this week with being thankful for the humility we can gain by walking with the Lord in every step of our work and lives.

Reference: Micah 6:8 (New Living Translation)