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 2345: The Business: Part 1 – Off The Org Chart

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“So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat!”

Here is a little five-part series I’ve titled, “The Business” to dive down into a few areas of business leadership that we sometimes overlook.

I have a friend who is a senior executive of a well-known publicly traded company.  His title is one that doesn’t at all describe what he really does. On an organization chart it appears that he has responsibility for one area of the company, but in reality he is the number two person and the right-hand person for the CEO.  Without title he directs many functions of the company and the revenue generators and profit-center managers come to him for direction and coaching more often than they do the CEO.  This is not a palace coup or an organization where this is happening in the dark or politically motivated by my friend to overthrow the CEO.  The CEO is quite aware of how the business operates and he is happy with letting the organization form as it wants to work best.  Now, my buddy sometimes feels under recognized because the external market can’t see what he really does (and can do) as it relates to his next job potential, but I remind him often that he will get to tell his story and when he does it will be even more positive in that others will recognize that he was given responsibility without the need for accolades or the spotlight.  We all have people in our organizations who are capable of handling more and many times we allow ourselves to be constrained by what we write on an organizational chart and/or what is externally accepted and expected in how a business is run.  But, let’s think this through and be sure that we are not missing the potential of someone around us who we don’t even know we are holding back.

Joseph is a great example of one who was not educated, trained or experienced in the ways of administration, but whom each leader he was around, he distinguished himself as someone who could do more and take away the burdens of the person he served.  Because of Joseph’s faithfulness to His God, God kept granting him favor in the areas of business and organizational administration to the point that the Bible says those for whom he worked would fully delegate to Joseph and then go about other business never worrying or having any concern for what Joseph was doing.  What this tells me today is that there are many of us, out here in the marketplace, wondering if what we are doing is really making a difference for God?  Well, if Joseph is any example, God recognizes that He can be glorified through work that is done, sometimes for those who are many degrees away in belief of God (think Egyptian Pharaohs).  So, today, work hard at what you are doing and rest assured that God is working through you for His purposes, regardless of where you sit on an org chart.

Reference: Genesis 39:6 (New Living Translation)