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 2435: Share And Share Alike

“But David said, “No, my brothers! Don’t be selfish with what the Lord has given us. He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the band of raiders that attacked us. Who will listen when you talk like this? We share and share alike—those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment.”

I have been guilty of favoring those who create and sustain revenue over those who support and administer the business. It’s a hard trap to not fall into because it is so easy to measure and thus reward and recognize the achievements and accomplishments of those who (seemingly) drive the business. The danger in this approach is that you will be able to attract great sales and marketing talent, but the rest of the organization will suffer because it becomes well-known that not everyone else is valued.  So, it is a worthwhile exercise to be sure that the rewards and recognition are being shared by everyone.

Being a sharer is a great trait.  Those who don’t share are (as we learned in grade school) selfish.  And those who are selfish are not demonstrating or living the way Christ modeled for us.  King David gave an example of this for us as he divided the spoils of victory.  We can do the same with how we share ourselves among others at work.  Do we only give our time and energy to those who we think get us ahead or do we equally share with those who are outside of the limelight?  Let’s remember, we should share and share alike.

Reference: 1 Samuel 30:23-25 (New Living Translation)