Culture Maker: The Tested Leadership Philosophy Of Garry Ridge

Forbes

19-04-2025

Garry Ridge
In a candid interview, Garry Ridge, the former CEO of WD-40 Company, shared his wisdom gained from 35 years at the company, including 25 years as its chief executive. Ridge, who describes himself as "just a traveling salesman from down under," reveals how humility, servant leadership, and creating a culture of belonging transformed a simple product—"the blue and yellow can with the little red top"—into a global success story.
Ridge's leadership philosophy was shaped by his parents' values. His father taught him enduring principles.
"My dad was born in 1907. Interestingly enough, he worked for the same company for 50 years," Ridge recalls. Starting as what was called a "fitter and turner" in Australia, his father eventually became an engineer. "The things I loved about dad—he said a man's word is a man's bond, a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. And dad was always on time. So he was quite a disciplined guy."
His mother, born in 1914, lived to be almost 100 years old, passing away about a decade ago. As a stay-at-home mom and seamstress, she instilled in him a profound sense of humility.
"There's a chapter in the book titled 'Even The Queen Sits Down to Pee.' The whole message behind that was 'Don't get too big for your boots, Gary,'" Ridge recalls with a smile. "Everybody is entitled to what we're entitled to in life. And she was adventurous too. Mom was always the one that was saying 'you better give it a go.'"
This humility became a cornerstone of his leadership approach. When giving keynote speeches, he would often introduce himself as "just a traveling salesman from down under" or "consciously incompetent, probably wrong, roughly right, Chairman Emus of the WD-40 Company," adding, "and I need all the help I can get."
As Ridge explains, "I never forgot where I came from, who I was, and who I have come to serve, no matter my title or role."
Ridge's work ethic was developed through various jobs in his youth—from delivering newspapers and milk to washing cars and working in local shops in Sydney during the 1960s and 70s.
"I was a paper boy as we called them in Australia. So I used to sell newspapers after school. A mate of mine and I started a little car washing business where we'd wash cars of professionals in the parking lot," Ridge shares. "I actually worked on a milk truck delivering milk early in the mornings. When I was going through school, I worked in the local hardware store, the local sporting goods store, and the local dry cleaning store. I worked for a chemist shop delivering prescriptions on my bicycle."
These diverse experiences taught him valuable lessons about responsibility and dependability.
"I didn't come from a wealthy family. We were middle, lower-class, and so we had to earn our way along the way," Ridge explains. "The learning was, you've gotta get out there and get amongst it. And that's where I learned the respect of being kind and dependable to people."
One formative experience stood out: "I tell one story in the book where I was working for the local hardware store manager, and he had a death in the family. He threw the keys at the store to me as he ran out the door and said, 'Take care of this, I'll be back.'"
This early lesson in responsibility shaped his approach to leadership at WD-40. "I think that carried through my career at WD-40, and I used to wake up every morning knowing that I could positively or negatively impact many families. And I took that very seriously."
The provocative title of Ridge's book—"Any Dumbass Can Do It"—captures his refreshing approach to leadership. When asked if he had to wrestle with the publisher over the title, Ridge laughs.
"No, it was my choice and I didn't have to wrestle," he explains. "In Australia, 'dumbass' is used sometimes as recognition. We say funny things in Australia, but it wouldn't be unusual to say it as a friendly gesture."
There's a deeper philosophy behind the playful title: "I think dumbassery is your superpower, and that's really what's behind it. One of the major barriers to great leadership is that the leader thinks they know it all. And I certainly did not."
Ridge believes the most successful leaders acknowledge their limitations and tap into collective intelligence. "I was fortunate enough, through learning, to understand the power of being able to unlock the brilliance of others. And that's really what our success was."
When discussing the common pitfalls of leadership, Ridge doesn't hesitate to identify the chief culprits that he's observed through his consulting and speaking experience:
"The first one is ego. Their ego eats their empathy instead of their empathy eating their ego. And then there's a natural tendency for them to be micromanagers," he observes. "They have this desire to always be right, and it's amazing how many really don't value the gift of feedback."
Ridge emphasizes that leaders who consider themselves "corporate royalty" become untouchable and inaccessible.
Drawing from his relationship with leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith, Ridge shares: "Marshall Goldsmith, who's a dear friend, and I've been fortunate enough to learn from him over many years, he says, when anybody gives you feedback, there's only two words: 'Thank you.' That's all you have to say. Whether you do anything with it or not, that's up to you. But don't create an atmosphere where people don't feel comfortable giving you feedback."
Ridge himself had transformative moments through feedback, particularly early in his CEO tenure. "In my second year as CEO, I went back to school and did a master's degree in leadership at the University of San Diego. The first course was a really intense course of understanding who you are as a leader. It was kind of like a 360 on steroids."
He discovered a personal tendency that could limit his effectiveness: "If you are aware of the DISC model at all, I was a turbo D—which was basically 'be brief, be bright, and be gone'—that was the way I used to interact with people. And that hit me square in the face because if that's the way I was going to handle people, then I wasn't going to benefit from their knowledge and what they had to offer."
Another lesson came when he realized he was "adding too much value" to others' ideas: "Someone would come with a problem or a solution or an idea, and I'd be tempted, even though I thought it was a pretty good idea, that I needed to put my fingerprints on it and add a little more value. What I actually did was add very little value but decrease motivation significantly, because now the person didn't really own the idea or the innovation."
Watch this clip of Garry discussing times of extreme uncertainty:
One of Ridge's most compelling insights is how clearly defined values liberate employees to make decisions independently:
"Values are in place to protect people and set them free," he explains. "People don't want to have to quack up the hierarchy every time they need to make a decision."
At WD-40, this translated into a hierarchical set of values, with "doing the right thing" at the top, followed by "creating positive, lasting memories in all relationships." These values guided decision-making across the global organization.
"Wherever you were in the world, if you had to make a decision, as long as you rested on our values, you could make that decision and you would always be supported," Ridge says.
He shares a powerful story illustrating these values in action:
"A person working in the supply chain at WD-40 company had the ability to make decisions around some of the ingredients that would go into our products. One day, a salesman came along and said, 'I've done some work on your formulation, and there's an ingredient that you are using, and we have an alternative to that. Efficacy wise, it's just as good. In fact, I might even say it's a little bit better. I've done some math on this, and my estimate is that if you were to replace the ingredient you are using with my ingredient, you could probably drop three to $4 million to your bottom line.'"
The salesman suggested this could lead to recognition and promotion, but there was a catch: the new ingredient would require a Proposition 65 warning in California that the contents may cause cancer.
The employee declined the offer based on the company's values: "Our number one value is we value doing the right thing. Our number two value is that we value creating positive, lasting memories in all of our relationships. Cancer doesn't cause positive lasting memories."
When the salesman pointed out that profitability was also a WD-40 value, the employee responded: "Yeah, but that's our number six value. One and two are more powerful than six."
Ridge emphasizes that at WD-40, values weren't just wall decorations: "We only had two measurements of values. You either lived them or you visited them. And we didn't want a lot of visitors."
Ridge transformed how his organization viewed mistakes by reframing them as "learning moments"—a concept that revolutionized the company culture.
"The definition of a learning moment is a positive or negative outcome of any situation that needs to be openly and freely shared to benefit all people," Ridge explains. "If you are working on something in the organization and you have a positive learning moment, a breakthrough moment, let's amplify that across the organization so we can really benefit. And the flip side, if you have a discovery about something that's not as successful, let's amplify it throughout the organization so we don't have hundreds of people exploring the same learning moment."
This approach removed the fear of failure and encouraged innovation and growth. "The purpose of a learning moment is to take away one of the most negative emotions we have, which is fear. Why would you want to be in an organization that talks about failure and fear all the time? But in reality, every success is built on a failure."
To embed this concept in the company culture, Ridge launched a learning moment contest. Initially met with skepticism—"I kind of heard echoes in the background, 'Yeah, sure'"—the initiative gradually gained traction as employees realized they wouldn't be punished for mistakes.
"In the first month, I got four [submissions]," he recalls. "I made heroes of them because they were brave enough to come forward. And the next month I got, let's say eight. And what did I do? I made heroes of them."
The contest revealed an important insight about change management: "In any change situation, there are personal concerns and information concerns, and if you don't solve for those personal concerns or those information concerns people have, you will not be able to implement the change."
Ridge believes in coaching rather than managing, a philosophy that shaped WD-40's organizational structure:
"At WD-40 company, we took the word manager away. Imagine you are a first-day employee at WD-40 and I say, 'G'day, Omaid, I'm your manager.' How does that feel? I don't think you really want to be managed."
Instead, Ridge likens leadership to coaching: "A great coach knows what it takes to win the game. Number two, they never run on the field and take the ball." He adds, "What they do is spend a lot of time on the sideline, observing the play so they're able to coach and advise the player how they could play a better game next time."
Ridge emphasizes another crucial aspect of coaching leadership: "The other thing a great coach does is that they spend a lot of time in the stinky locker room." This metaphor speaks to the importance of leaders getting their "shoes dirty" with those they lead rather than acting as "corporate royalty."
"How much time do you spend getting your shoes dirty with those that you lead?" Ridge asks. 'Do you have your coffee brought to you in the office because you are corporate royalty, or are you down there in the canteen, cafeteria, and break area lining up at the café bar machine to get your coffee so you could have a chat with the people in the line as well and learn something from them?'
Ridge places great emphasis on creating psychological safety in the workplace, which he sees as a balance between care and trust:
"Care in an organization means that we love and care for our people enough, not only to reward them and applaud them for doing great work but to be brave enough to redirect them, not protecting our own comfort zone at the expense of other people's development."
He explains that trust means "doing what you say you're gonna do" and adds, "Often in organizations, people don't lie. They fake and hide. And the reason they fake and hide is because of fear or because the leader is being that soul-sucking CEO who must always be right."
Ridge highlights the importance of checking in with employees: "The first chapter of the book is 'Are You Okay?' How often do we ask people in an organization, are they okay? What's on your mind? What's getting in your way? I'm here to help you."
He summarizes the responsibility of leaders in creating psychological safety with a vivid metaphor: "The fish rots from the head, simply as that. If you are gonna have an organization where you wanna have psychological safety or trust, well, you better live that as the leader. Otherwise, no one's gonna believe you."
When asked about the sacrifices leaders make to achieve success, Ridge offers a perspective shift:
"If you are making a contribution to something that's not worthy, then I would call it a sacrifice. But if you are making a contribution to something that is worthy, I would call it a contribution, not a sacrifice."
He acknowledges the need for balance: "Of course you have to live your purpose in life, and your purpose as a parent or a father or a husband or a wife is a little different to the one at work."
Ridge shares how he maintained connections with his family during his travels: "My kids benefited from the work that I did. They got to see the world. I remember early times before there was internet or email. I'd be traveling up into Asia, and we'd have a fax machine at home. If my son would come home from school with something he wanted to be proud of, he'd fax it to me at a hotel, and I'd write him a note and send it back."
He concludes, "I think it's not sacrifice at the cost of exclusion. You've gotta be deliberate about what you do. But to be able to do what we did was really not sacrifice. We were making a contribution. But I think you've gotta balance it. You've gotta understand where you're putting your energy and what season of your life you are in."
One of Ridge's most memorable stories involves an experience in a London hotel that became a metaphor for leadership awareness:
"We're in London. It's a cold winter's night. I'd flown in from wherever I'd flown in. I decided that this night I was going to enjoy some British comedy and have a little bit of takeout food. So I went across the road to a little supermarket, got myself a beer and takeout, and was in my hotel room which I'd stayed many times over the years."
Ridge settled in wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and ill-fitting hotel flip-flops when the alarm went off. "I did what I normally do. I ignored it. I've been in hotels where alarm bells have gone off before, and my anticipation is someone's going to come over the loudspeaker in a few seconds and say, 'Sorry, that was a false alarm.'"
But the alarm continued, and soon there was urgent knocking at his door: "Mr. Ridge, Mr. Ridge, evacuate the hotel!" He had to rush outside in his inappropriate attire, into the cold London winter night, where it started to rain.
"So here I am, shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops. I grab my phone and my passport, I run down the stairs, and bang, here I am into the middle of Stratton Street and Barkley Square in London, in the middle of winter thinking, 'Oh my God, how did I get here?'"
After the all-clear (someone had left a suspicious backpack in the foyer), Ridge returned to his room to find "my beer's hot, my curry's cold, I'm freezing. The TV show that I wanna watch is gone, and I've had a not very nice experience."
This incident prompted reflection: "It made me think about, am I listening to the alarm bells that are going off in my life?" On his flight home, Ridge made a list of potential "alarm bells" in his life and business. 'My learning moment there was, there's a lot of stuff going on around us that if we ignore it, it could really hurt us. If they're significant, you may end up out in the cold where you don't wanna be.'
One of Ridge's proudest accomplishments is that "we never laid anyone off in my 25 years at WD-40 company. Never." This commitment was tested during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
His approach during difficult times was: "Is it better that all of us suffer a little than a few suffer a lot? We went through tough times. It didn't mean that we didn't make sacrifices. We did, but we said, let's all suffer a little instead of a few people suffering a lot."
Ridge acknowledges the feedback that the company didn't have enough people but counters, "We have the right amount of people that even in tough times, we won't have to lay anybody off."
The COVID-19 pandemic provided the ultimate test of WD-40's culture. In January 2021, Ridge was concerned about "draining cultural equity" and commissioned a pulse survey. The results surprised him: "Most of the numbers, in fact, all of them were equal to where they were in March 2020, except for one. And it went up. The question was, 'I'm excited about my place in the company's future.'"
Despite the ongoing pandemic uncertainty, 97% of employees globally expressed excitement about their future with the company. When asked why, they responded: "I feel safe. We are living our just cause of a group of people that come together to protect and feed each other. If I needed to be anywhere, I want to be here."
Ridge considers this "one of my proudest moments," demonstrating that the company had built a culture that could withstand even the most challenging circumstances.
What ultimately matters most to Ridge is the impact his work has had on people's lives. When asked what he hopes his children will say about him in ten years, he responds:
"I would hope that they would say Dad's work did what Dad wanted it to do, which was help leaders build organizations where people go home happy."
Ridge's parting advice for leaders early in their careers distills his philosophy into three principles:
"First one, don't let your ego eat your empathy. Have your empathy eat your ego. Be a continuous learner. Life is a learning journey. And then also be a continuous teacher. Your role as a leader is to be a learner and a teacher. And practice servant leadership. If you're there to serve others, you'll find that very rewarding."
Through his leadership journey, Ridge demonstrates that humility, servant leadership, and creating cultures of belonging aren't just nice-to-haves—they're the foundation of sustainable success in business and in life. As his mentor and friend Ken Blanchard would say, "God didn't make any junk," and Ridge's career has been dedicated to bringing out the best in every person he's had the privilege to lead.
Click here to listen to the full interview with Garry Ridge