Ryder System CEO Robert Sanchez has spent more than 30 years at the trucking and logistics company, including a dozen of those years as chief executive and chairman of the board. The Miami-based Fortune 500 company operates a fleet of 250,000 commercial trucks and generates $12.6 billion in revenue every year. Sanchez, who first started at the company in 1993, told Fortune there are two key practices that keep him sane and firing on all cylinders.
The first is working out, which he tries to do every morning. Nothing fancy, just weight training while he watches CNBC, said Sanchez. He used to run, but his doctor told him as he got older it was better to stick with weights, and Sanchez said his workout routine hasn’t changed since high school.
The second is being “maniacal” about time management, he said.
“When I first started at Ryder, I was really bad at time management; I didn’t write anything down and I was also bad at following up and keeping track of what I needed to get done,” said Sanchez. “I relied heavily on the little yellow stick-em pads.”
He would jot down notes and affix them to his computer screen, Sanchez said. His boss at the time realized very quickly that he needed some additional upskilling and sent Sanchez to a time-management class led by leadership-training group Franklin Covey.
“Basically, it was a one-day class and they teach you how to keep a calendar of what you want to get done and then also to-do lists of things you’ve got to do every single day,” said Sanchez. “It sounds extremely basic, but I had not figured this out so it was a game-changer for me.”
Sanchez, 59, made his way up the ladder, working in asset and transportation management and taking a role on the company’s executive leadership team in 2003 when he was named chief information officer. He was appointed chief financial officer in 2007, and in 2012, took the chief operating officer role. Less than a year later, in January 2013, he was named CEO. The board elected him chairman in May the same year.
That one-day course helped Sanchez be much more organized about his time at work over the years, which also allowed him to be more organized at home. He has a wife and three sons who are all adults now; the oldest is 30 and the youngest is 25.
The baseball coach CEO
Sanchez’s kids played competitive sports growing up. And as a dad, Sanchez felt the pressure of being able to make it to their games and be present, which led to some creative solutions. Sanchez coached one of his son’s baseball teams while maintaining a heavy travel schedule. He did it by setting practices on Friday nights—parents didn’t love it, but he knew on Friday he’d be flying home and could make it to the field.
Even then, though, sometimes he had to produce workarounds.
“There were times when my flight would get delayed,” he recalled. “I would be driving from the airport to the park and I’d be changing in the car, which my wife was convinced one day a policeman was going to arrest me for—changing near a kids park—but luckily, that never happened.”
Sanchez is also clear-eyed about his need to sacrifice. He didn’t play golf until his youngest son left for college because he never had time for it.
“My life was work and the family and the kids,” he said. “You’ve got to make choices in what your priorities are and then you’ve got to stick to it.”
Sanchez’s home life also offers him a healthy dose of humility and perspective, courtesy of his wife, Melly. The two have been married for 33 years. He said when he was named COO at Ryder, Melly was getting her hair done and another customer discovered the connection, commenting that Sanchez was now the second-in-command at the company.
Melly’s response? “Oh my God, how cute. Just like at home,” Sanchez told Fortune.
But despite their banter, Sanchez credits his 33-year marriage as crucial to his success.
“Being able to know that you’ve got somebody at home who is really supportive and helping to keep the family together, keep things moving along while you have to focus at work,” he said. “It would be impossible without that.”
And the payoff is that while Sanchez wasn’t perfect in his attendance at his kids’ games, he was intentional—even if it meant occasionally changing into his coaching gear in an airport parking lot.
“I was able to feel good about that balance because I knew that if I wasn’t going to make Tuesday’s game, I was definitely going to make Wednesday’s because I had it on my calendar, blocked off.”
