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 2322: Going Public

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“…I have been heard by people everywhere, and teach nothing in private that I have not said in public.”

Inevitably someone says something in private and it becomes public and they are caught trying to either defend what they said and or roll it all back. Depending on who this person is, it can make front-line news and become a real headache for lots and lots of people. We are all guilty of it. This is especially true of business results, forecasts, sales or inventory projections.  There are many an analyst out there who models sales forecasts off of what they hear about inventory surpluses or shortages. The Investment Regulations consultants will teach us to not say anything in private that we wouldn’t say in public.  That really isn’t a great safeguard because we don’t know what we will or won’t say in public in the future.  The better lesson is to not say anything in private that we haven’t already said in public.  That way our private conversations always lag our public ones and we can’t be accused of saying two different things.

 

Who knew that such a fundamental business lesson would come from Jesus Himself? He explained who He was to the High Priest by being congruent and absolute in what He taught and said in private and public. If we today are looking for one way in the workplace to model Jesus’ life we can pick up this lesson and make it part of our way of working. People trust others who don’t gossip or talk behind other’s back and who strive to be transparent at all times.  Take the lesson to heart and watch how others begin to trust you in a better and more deeply respectful way. And if they ask why we are this way, be ready to go public with He who taught you the lesson.

Reference:  John 18:20 (New Living Translation)