‘Soft’ takes hard work – and creates stronger results, as Garry proved at WD-40 and now coaches through ‘The Learning Moment.’

​“Imagine a place where you go to work every day, you make a contribution to something bigger than yourself. You learn something new. You are protected and set free by a compelling set of values, and you go home happy.”

That is the philosophy Garry Ridge brought to WD-40 as CEO, where he had a 25-year tenure before becoming chairman emeritus in 2023. As founder, also, of The Learning Moment, he continues to share his leadership lessons and coach other CEOs on building cultures of belonging, love, forgiveness and learning.

In running WD-40, Garry implemented a people-centric, servant leadership approach that led to almost unheard-of employee engagement (93%) and strong financial results: “We had a compounded annual growth rate of total shareholder return of 15% a year,” he shares, noting also a seven-times increase in revenue.

“You don’t have to be brilliant to be a great leader,” he says. “You just need a bit of courage, a lot of care and the humility to keep learning.”

Ridge’s leadership philosophy has embraced taking care of the people on his team, creating a culture of belonging and focusing on developing people to be their best selves. ​“Culture equals values plus behavior times consistency,” he says.

He also prioritizes taking care of customers. He describes the WD-40 product as a “love experience delivery system” that creates positive, lasting memories for customers.

“Our purpose statement was, ‘We exist to create positive, lasting memories, solving problems in factories, homes and workshops around the world,’” he says. “Which, when you connect it to the people at the company, do you want to stop a squeak or do you want to create a positive lasting memory? And at the end of the day, all we have in life is memories.”

When stepping down as CEO, Garry was confident the people-centric culture he’d built would continue because he had intentionally developed a strong leadership bench and empowered others to lead. “I loved what I did,” he says. “I was there for … 35 years, and 25 years in the role, but it was wrong for me to covet that. I needed to give those that I had the privilege to lead, the opportunity to lead on. And how do you do the best you can to ensure that the culture continues? Well, there’s a simple answer to that. The culture wasn’t me. I planted the seed. The tree was very, very well-grown through watering and nurturing by many people by the time I left. So, it would take someone to come in and deliberately try to chop that tree down to change the culture.”

Click on the link below to watch Garry’s video interview with Chris Benguhe, founder and president of the Dave Alexander Center for Social Capital, as he shares more of his leadership insights.

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