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 2380: Overlooking

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“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,[a] you were doing it to me!’

We, myself included, are guilty of overlooking those who do the unseen but essential work within our companies.  The meeting room that is perfectly prepared when the outside customers show up.  The fingerprint and smudge free glass doors that we enter each morning. The internet connection that is up and running continuously all day long.  The numbers on the financial statements that always add up. These are just a few of the things that we might take for granted but without someone who is likely being overlooked most of the day, wouldn’t happen.  What if today we spent just a few minutes of our time looking for the overlooked and seeking them out to just say thank you.  Have a story to tell about the power of thanking and encouraging the overlooked? Send it to me. I’d love to tell that story here for others to experience and to learn from.

Jesus spoke in parables and most of the time His Disciples just couldn’t grok what Jesus was trying to teach them. So, we get the benefit of their learning process with the account of His explanations. In the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus challenges us all to pay attention, close attention, to what is going on with the people around us.  He is telling us that we can’t overlook others but instead we have to look even harder and deeper to recognize and then address their needs.  We live in the fastest-moving time in history and with advances in technology we can sit in one spot all day long and interact with only a screen filled with pictures, videos and words.  But behind each of those, is a person. And that person may be the one person today who we shouldn’t overlook.  Why?  Because, Jesus commands us to do so in honor and praise of Him.

Reference:  Matthew 25:40 (New Living Translation)