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 2337: Oh, Those Millennials!

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“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.”

I was privileged to be hosted last year by Sovereign’s Capital in Jakarta, Indonesia.  I had five different speaking segments over three days.  Each day I was asked in different ways the same question. I’ll sum the questions up like this; “What can I do about the Millennials?” I always chuckle a bit when we lump every person under 30 into the same bucket and then throw our arms in the air as we struggle to manage and lead them.  Sometimes, the best thing we can do to manage and lead those who are younger than we are is to remember back how different we were to the prior generation. And better yet, let’s not forget that we are responsible for many of the outcomes we see today in the Millennials.  It wasn’t them that started with the burying of their heads into computers and phones.  We were the ones who would sit on the couch at night and do email in front of the TV (first generation to do so, BTW) while the kids played or watched their shows.  We were the ones who installed the phones in our cars, bringing our accessibility to the office to the ride to and from work…and any other time we were in the car.  We were the ones who complained enough to relax dress standards and even push for alternative time off schemes, alternative hours and working from home.  But, we forget the discomfort we caused and the consternation that our Managers and companies had with us.  We lit the fuse and blew air on it to help it burn faster.  We just didn’t think we’d have to deal with what it would be like when the fuse burned to the explosives.

We, as people, are going to change from generation to generation.  And, to live through our lives fully we need to be open to the differences that will come, but we have to do so from a place of grounding that we know that God and all about Him does not change.  He remains faithful from generation to generation and that level of faithfulness to us can never be repaid, but it can be the driver within us as we move through the changes within our lives and the world around us.

Reference: Deuteronomy 7:9 (New Living Translation)