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 2566: Top Tone

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“…But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love…”

I was reflecting on a lunch I had with a very successful venture capitalist and former executive and he was speaking about the leadership lessons he had learned that had stuck with him over the years.  One that really stood out was the importance of the “top tone”.  The tone he was referring to is the tone that top most leader (CEO) sets for the entire organization.  Their own personal tone becomes the tone for everyone else, whether they like it or not. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft says this, “There is something only a CEO uniquely can do, which is set that tone, which can then capture the soul of the collective.” That’s a bold statement and one that a person cannot make unless they are willing to take responsibility for the ramifications if their tone is wrong, not just right. I applaud Satya and all leaders who step up and accept that they must be intentional about the tone they are setting.  If you lead an organization, now would be the time to evaluate what tone you are setting from the top.

God is pitch perfect.  He tells us clearly in His Word what His tone is that we are to try to reach. We can start with words in Nehemiah; forgiveness, graciousness, mercy, slow to anger, rich in love.  This is the tone we are to set and ring out daily for Him.  This, if we are in any doubt, is our work.

Reference: Nehemiah 9:17b (New Living Translation)