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 2423: No Drama

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“In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.”

I was in a meeting yesterday where one of the leaders who is stepping out of his role was recognized with the nickname, “No Drama”.  It was a great compliment given the amount of change this person had led in the past year. I was reminded that a calm and cool hand at the helm can make all the difference in the world to a company, a team or individuals in their feeling safe and secure with change and challenge.  If we are prone to creating drama (like so many think leadership is to do) we are also walking upon the coals of conflict, divisiveness, frustration and likely disappointment.  We know who the drama makers are in our companies and organizations.  Let’s be sure that we don’t fall into the trap of playing into their drama.

Paul makes it clear to us that he and his team were not about drama.  They presented themselves without it and expected others to do the same.  The leader I mentioned above has never given me or anyone else I know an indication that his demeanor comes from a faith walk.  But imagine, that he had?  If he had, then I know without a doubt that his trait of no drama would be a strong indication to others that he was walking the talk of God’s direction. That is our opportunity today; walk the talk and bring the calm and peace of God into our workplace.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 6: 4