Ron Peckham, C&S Companies

*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Bill Berthel:
On this episode of Driving Leadership, Ron Peckham is going to join me for a conversation about leadership. He is super passionate about learning, growth and development. While Ron is the retired CEO of C&S industries right here in Central New York, an engineering firm that does some amazing things. What I’m excited to talk to Ron about is his passion for leadership development, learning and growth. Come on, let’s go meet Ron Has Syracuse always been home for you?

Ron Peckham:
No. I grew up in Walton.

Bill Berthel:
Right.

Ron Peckham:
And then, I went to Clarkson and migrated back here and started with a firm for ten years and then been associated with C&S for 40.

Bill Berthel:
40 years.

Ron Peckham:
Yeah.

Bill Berthel:
Wow.

Ron Peckham:
So all of my working career has been here. Although when I got started, we noticed that when the national economy got a cold, Syracuse got pneumonia.

Bill Berthel:
Yeah. Ah.

Ron Peckham:
So it’s a good way to put it. I was willing to travel. And so my business partner, Mac Murray, we, made a decision that he would keep the home fires of Central New York burning and that I would travel for 35 years. And so when we started, we had four upstate New York offices.

Bill Berthel:
Okay.

Ron Peckham:
And today we have 25 offices, across three time zones.

Bill Berthel:
Wow.

Ron Peckham:
So it was, I really spent pretty, much 30 years on the road.

Bill Berthel:
Yeah.

Ron Peckham:
So when I took over, when they tapped me as CEO and I would start going to local, functions because I was always on the road and Mac was omnipresent.

Bill Berthel:
Yes.

Ron Peckham:
They would say, so how long have you been with C&S? And I go, well, counting today is 27 years.

Bill Berthel:
I guess that proximity and, familiarity is part of that. So, educated as engineer.

Ron Peckham:
Yes.

Bill Berthel:
But a passion for leadership.

Ron Peckham:
Yes.

Bill Berthel:
Tell me about what you’re doing now.

Ron Peckham:
Right now I serve as a consultant, to C&S companies. And I basically do three things. I coach, mentor and teach leadership.

Bill Berthel:
Awesome.

Ron Peckham:
And the bulk of the leadership training is around a course, which is called personal mastery. And personal mastery is a foundational leadership course, subject that really is based on the concept that you can’t lead anyone else until you can lead yourself. And so you couldn’t possibly lead yourself until you figure out what’s important in your life. And so in 2020, in Covid we did, the first couple were, contactless. They were all virtual. they asked me to design a curriculum, for this course. And so they select twelve high performing and high potential individuals across a platform now of about 525 employees at C&S and we put them in a course that’s eight months long. Has a personal connection a couple days at the beginning and two days at the end, and the rest are virtual. And it’s a course that’s based on four key questions. Who am I? Why am I here? How can I serve? And how much is enough?

Bill Berthel:
Oh, how much is enough? I love that. Yeah. Yeah. That must key in, to some extent around the kind, of work of the stoics, where they’re really talking, about true identity and essentialism in the way that, managing my time and my energy.

Ron Peckham:
Yes.

Bill Berthel:
How much is enough? I love that. Yeah.

Ron Peckham:
You know, in a capitalistic culture, we often think that, how much is enough is about stuff or materialism

Bill Berthel:
Or more, or we just go to more. Right?

Ron Peckham:
Right. But the reality is, how much is enough? Is. How much work is enough.

Bill Berthel:
Yeah.

Ron Peckham:
How much relationship is enough.

Bill Berthel:
Yes.

Ron Peckham:
How much leisure is enough? How much intimacy is enough? It goes way beyond just the stuff of life.

Bill Berthel:
I love it.

Ron Peckham:
And until you have clarity on that, you can’t be sure that you’re on the right track.

Bill Berthel:
Yes. That’s fantastic. It’s really important to know yourself in that way. What do you think some key, either lessons along the way or experiences for yourself have been to really get to know yourself, really get that kind of self-awareness along the way. As a youngster, you were good at selling. How did you know that?

Ron Peckham:
Well, I just. It just, you know, it just came easy to me.

Bill Berthel:
Yeah.

Ron Peckham:
When others would be anxious about, I think you have to.

Bill Berthel:
You just stepped in and did it.

Ron Peckham:
You have to sit back and say, well, was that something that brought me fear or brought me joy?

Bill Berthel:
Yeah, I love that.

Ron Peckham:
And so you try to. As much as we can, because, let’s face it, in this world, we have to do a lot of things that don’t bring us joy. Yeah. And so the more we can raise the amount of joy we have and lower the challenge, the things that we don’t get energy from is important. I think along the way, leadership just somehow just resonated with me. I noticed, although I was trying to get into a good college, I noticed in high school that I ended up as President of three student organizations. And that was all well and good for my college resume. But in retrospect, I looked back, and I said, you know, Ron, you did a very mediocre job because you thought that you could be leader of three organizations.

Ron Peckham:
And I learned from that experience, Bill, that we have to focus on something, because otherwise we’re just checking boxes, and we’ll never get deeply enough involved to do a really good job. And that was a good lesson for me, an early lesson that you need to figure out what’s important to you and drill down and be the best you can. I notice that when people are passionate about something there’s a high correlation that they’re good at it. And I believe it’s because when we’re passionate about something we invest. Whether it’s playing a guitar or water skiing or whatever. We invest and we don’t count the time.

Bill Berthel:
We don’t count the time.

Ron Peckham:
We don’t count the time.

Bill Berthel:
No. We get in that state of flow perhaps where time is no longer a metric.

Ron Peckham:
Exactly.

Bill Berthel:
Time somehow evaporates. so let’s talk about this beautiful building we’re in right now. you had shared with me previously that you had many choices where to build. At the time, you were considering, your organization was considering. And we’re here. is this on the airport property or near the airport property?

Ron Peckham:
It is on the airport property.

Bill Berthel:
So why here? M what is this building we’re in? It’s a gorgeous building. Well, I’m sure we’ll get some great shots of it. Tell me about where we’re sitting.

Ron Peckham:
We’re sitting in the C&S headquarters building. And we built it about 1994, I believe. And the firm was growing and expanding. And so we had three choices. we had an inner-city choice. We had a suburban choice. And we had the opportunity to lease this piece of property, from the airport. So it was really because aviation practice was a big part of our practice. And also this was one of the most highly visible sites in the entire county because it’s four lanes in and out of the driveway to. The building.

Bill Berthel:
Lots of visitors. Right. Lots of visitors.

Ron Peckham:
Everybody that flies into town or flies out goes by the structure.

Bill Berthel:
That’s great.

Ron Peckham:
And so we thought that this would be, this is way before we had any conversations about branding that we thought that this would be a good place to brand C&S as a professional services and construction company that you might want to work with.

Bill Berthel:
So I think we’re going to take a little ride today. Where are we headed?

Ron Peckham:
we have built my wife hates me to describe it this way as a final season home. But it’s a house that we build as a gathering place because all three of my children and all six of my grandchildren are within 25 miles of Liverpool.

Bill Berthel:
That’s fantastic.

Ron Peckham:
So we wanted a space like will happen Sunday for a delayed Father’s Day celebration.

Bill Berthel:
Nice.

Ron Peckham:
Everybody could get together and cousins could connect, and it would be an easy spot to entertain. And it happens to be on the Seneca river. And, ah, very, bucolic site. that’s very, Zen, encouraging. And so we’re going to go over there and finish our conversation.

Bill Berthel:
Well, let’s take a ride. I can’t wait to see it. So I often ask my guests on this show what really, inspiring story or transformational story sticks out in their experience. It might be a leader you worked with. It might have been from any walk of life, a teacher, a parent, a, religious leader in your life. what inspirational story really stands out for you that you hold on to?

Ron Peckham:
When I was 18, Vietnam war was going on, and the way they filled the troop units for Vietnam was there was a lottery based on your birthday. So in the year that I turned 18, they were inducting, drafting up to number 143. So when my birthday was selected as number 14, I knew I was going. And so I continued on in ROTC to become an officer and be able to finish my education and serve an Army reserve career. And after I graduated, I was assigned to a basic combat training unit. And basically, we would go to Fort Dix. We would stand, be next to. The regular Army, and we would train troops. And the week that we got assigned was range week, which meant that the 160, basic trainees, the recruits, would have to walk 5 miles out to. The range. They would bivouac for three days in the rain, and they would walk back. And we got just out in the woods, just outside the lights of the barracks cantonment area. And we had a first sergeant, Sergeant Williams, who was the drill instructor in charge of the company. He said to us, platoon sergeants form the company up around the stump. They formed the company up. It was pitch black, so only the first 20 people could actually see him. And he got up on that stump, and he was a man of very few words, but you knew when he looked at you, he could look right into your soul. And so he stood on that stump, and it was the first time I realized he was building the bridge. He told them who they were as Charlie company. He told them how proud he was of what they had done in the miserable, cold November rain for three days. And he told them there was an opportunity, a desired state, to be their best self when they walked into the barracks cantonment area.

Bill Berthel:
Oh, wow.

Ron Peckham:
And he said, what I want you to do, no Manor how you’re feeling, I want you to come together as a unit. I want you to sing with your loudest voice for the jody calls as we march in. And I want you to wake up every single recruit that’s in that barracks area with your, with your marching, sounds.

Bill Berthel:
Yeah. Wow.

Ron Peckham:
Bill, I looked at, because I couldn’t see his face.

Bill Berthel:
Ah.

Ron Peckham:
All they could do is hear his voice, his authenticity and his encouragement. And I watched this baton death march turn into a sharp marching unit that was calling cadence at the top of their lungs, walking right into their own barracks. And so, I thought to myself, I don’t know what Sergeant Williams knows, but I’d like to learn that.

Bill Berthel:
Yes, yes, yes.

Ron Peckham:
Because that was a transformational moment that he was able, without any tricks, without any visuals, he was able to reach in to where they were. It was the essence of emotional intelligence to reach into where they were and make meaning for them.

Bill Berthel:
Yes.

Ron Peckham:
And show them the desired state and call them to their best self. And I thought to myself, I’d love. To learn that,

Bill Berthel:
inspire influence and really drive them to that purposeful action. Ron, thank you for opening your home to us today. We’re sitting here by the beautiful Seneca river. Why here? What is this site for you?

Ron Peckham:
not only is it a very peaceful site, but, when my mom got older, she wanted to be closer to family. And we found, a small ranch house on this property. that was, the perfect combination between her village home and her cottage on the West branch of the Delaware. And so, my vision, she was 84 at the time. My vision was to give her five more years of independent living. And when she passed at 106 in this house, she was 22 years into a five-year plan.

Bill Berthel:
Oh, that’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. So, Ron, we’ve talked about some of your, I’ll call it your professional leadership and your professional experiences and stories. I’d love to ask you more about your personal leadership and your, maybe you, used the word intimate earlier, and it’s actually one of my most favorite words, the idea of intimacy. Can, you talk about the intimacy of leadership and a little bit about your personal, your personal drive, your personal motivation around leadership.

Ron Peckham:
Well, I had an experience where I didn’t really have any consistent mentors in my life. I had a very trusted partner. but I noticed that, many people were looking for a safe space to get advice and to get coaching. and not really coaching but mentoring and life skills. And that, it was something that I had a passion for, that, if there was anything I could do to help them have a better life with those they cared most about or in their career that I wanted to be available for that I noticed that some are interested in that, and some are not. because when we live our best life, it is almost always involved change. And, not everybody is interested in doing the work of change. So, I’m drawn to. The phrase that when a student is ready, a teacher appears. And I’ve kind of made it my commitment in this phase of life that if a student appears, that I will share with them whatever is helpful to help them have a better journey.

Bill Berthel:
Ron, I want to ask, for me and our viewers, I want to ask you for your leadership advice in two specific places, because I think you have some, I think you have some brilliance to share. So the one is in your own self-care and your resilience, you’re restoring, you’re rebuilding yourself as a person, as a leader. And if I can stack the question, the second is more on the professional, side of things. folks, that tune in again, they want to hear about, well, how might I become a leader or how might I emulate this leader I’m watching? What would I learn? What, would you want them to hear from that side of things?

Ron Peckham:
Well, I don’t think that we have much to offer others until we take care of ourselves. It’s not unlike being on an airline, and it’ll tell you to put on your own, oxygen mask first. So, body, mind and spirit, if we’re not intentional about renewing and refreshing those muscles, they get weak, and we ignore them. And one thing we know is that every muscle that doesn’t get used atrophies and every muscle that gets used gets stronger. So, body, mind and spirit, if we’re not being intentional about investing in those parts, we really don’t have much to bring to. The party.

Bill Berthel:
Ah.

Ron Peckham:
So that’s what I would encourage people to take stock and say, what would it take for me to have those three parts in order?

Bill Berthel:
Be intentional about those three, those three areas. Yeah. Nice, Ron, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and your energy. appreciate your wisdom. most of all, thanks for sharing this space with us today. This is just, bringing us into your intimate space. Like, this means so much to me, and I’m sure our viewers will enjoy this. Thank you.

Ron Peckham:
I so appreciate being asked and, and the opportunity to encourage others to lead on and to be their best self. Thank you, Bill, for this opportunity.

Bill Berthel:
Yeah, thank you.