Garry Ridge had already been a CEO for two years when he enrolled at the University of San Diego in 1999 for a master’s degree in executive leadership.
Ridge, who helmed the multi-use product company WD-40 from 1997 until he retired in 2022, thought at the time that he needed to change himself to make the company and its workforce more successful, he told Simon Sinek’s “A Bit Of Optimism” podcast in a Nov. 25 episode.
Ridge had recently moved from Australia and wanted to expand WD-40 around the world, he said. Prior to going back to school, he was a “be brief, be bright, be gone” type of leader, he added: “I really thought that I had to be command and control. And I pretty soon learned [in school] that my job was not to command and control.”
Instead of running his company with an iron fist, Ridge took a more personable approach to leadership — which he credited to guidance from a professor at the time, Ken Blanchard — aiming to help employees feel more belonging and empowerment, he said.
“Our purpose was to create positive lasting memories ... So what changed in my mind was I couldn’t do this alone,” said Ridge, now a Poway, California-based leadership coach for other CEOs. “If we were going to expand to 176 countries around the world, which we did, and if the sun was never going to set on the people in the organization, I had to make sure that in an environment where they felt safe enough to make decisions and be brave.”
