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 2527: Humility

“True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life.”

I was asked recently, “Can a great leader be too humble?”  I think the question that was really being asked was; “Can I be a great leader and still be extremely humble?”  It’s a great question as we don’t have many examples of great and humble leaders.  It’s not easy to be on the front line of competition, challenge and adversity and not have some ego to get us through.  That said, one can have ego (confidence) and still practice humility in our work and how we interact with others.  I saw a brand pitch that describe the company as “Radical Servant Leaders”.  I loved that because it is in that attitude and approach that we can be humble and still be great leaders.

John Dickson in his book, “Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership” wrote this: “Humility is about redirecting of your powers, whether physical, intellectual, financial or structural, for the sake of others”.  So, yes, we can take on Christ-like humility today and be even greater leaders to those who we serve while we have been given the privilege and gift to lead.

Reference:  Proverbs 22:24 (New Living Translation)