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 2718: Humility First

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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”

I’m coming back to the topic of humility that we touched upon yesterday.  Sadly, the world is full of pompous, egotistical, narcissistic, selfish and arrogant people in very important and powerful leadership positions.  It may be that right now we work for one of those types. I’d hope that if you are a regular reader of this blog that you wouldn’t be described this way.  But, if you have been forwarded this blog for the first time, you may want to take a quick look in the mirror and ask why? I firmly believe that the term of time that the wrong kind of leader stays in their position is finite and contracted because of their poor leadership style and being. Sure, there are many stories of the bad actors that get to the top and stay there, but for every one of those stories there are thousands of stories of those who flamed out and ended up far from where they desired to be because others didn’t want to work or be around them. Never mind not trust or believe in their motivations. It’s enough that people just don’t like how someone treats them that it will one day become the derailer of their career.

Humility is one of the most attractive and appealing characteristics a leader can possess.  Yet, it is so hard to remain humble when all the signals being sent to us is to toot our own horn and scream our successes.  If you are not a follower of Jesus or don’t have faith in your life’s purpose, it is even harder to remain humble because you have no greater one to keep you accountable in this area.  Micah tells us to walk humbly with God.  I might say it another way; walk with God to remain humble.  Patti and are hanging out on the east coast for the rest of the year and that gives me access to the beach. A few weeks ago I was walking Theo (our French bulldog puppy) on the beach early in the morning.  He was off leash and he was having a grand time flirting with the incoming and outgoing waves, running from rock to rock, sniffing so many different smells of the sea and the crisp fall morning.  I could feel the joy coming from him. But, I also observed Him always watching me, making sure he didn’t get too far away and looking at me for validation that his activity was okay, or not. That walk that morning and the mornings since remind me that when we take a walk with God, it is impossible to be nothing but humble.  To think that we would let our egos and confidence get beyond the grace and mercies of our Lord would be to be divorced from the love He has for us, and we know that He never does that.  So, yes, let’s walk humbly to today because we are walking with our God.

Reference:  Micah 6:8 (New Living Translation)