The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 125: Garry Ridge – How To Build A Tribal Culture (CEO WD-40)

Starting point is 00:00:00 I say I never lose. I either win or learn. And I had a learning moment because at WD40, we don't make mistakes. We have a learning moment. And my big learning moment was that micromanagement was not scalable. And if we were to take this beautiful blue and yellow can with a little red top to the world, we had to build a culture based around, you know, a very clear vision or a very clear why do we exist, a set of values that set people free.

Starting point is 00:00:30 and some strategic drivers that were easy to understand. And we started on that. And through the work of great people, we've now grown from a public or a public company. We're on the NASDAQ stock exchange. We had a market cap back then of about 250 million. Last time I looked, I think we're about 1.5 or 1.6 billion. Are leaders born or are they made?

Starting point is 00:00:53 Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey everyone, it's Ryan. I wanted to make a quick announcement. A number of you had sent me emails in regards to asking for a place to further this dialogue

Starting point is 00:01:26 with like-minded people, other listeners, fans, and friends of the Learning Leader Show. So I set up a group on Facebook. It's Facebook.com slash groups slash learning leader. It's a closed group. But if you'd like an invite, simply shoot me a quick note and I'd be happy to bring you into the group. This is a place where we can freely communicate and discuss leadership, learning, creative ideas, podcasting, and new and innovative ways of thinking a place where we could

Starting point is 00:01:54 potentially argue a little bit, have an open mind and have constructive dialogue. I've loved the early response from the people who are already in the group. group, but simply send me a note. I'll add you to it. I look forward to talking with more of you very soon. Hey, and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk, absolutely thrilled with tonight's featured leader. It is Gary Ridge. Gary is the president and CEO of WD40. You might remember Simon Sinek and I discussing some of the great leaders in the world. And Simon mentioned Gary as one of those, so I immediately reached out to him. to have this conversation.

Starting point is 00:02:39 Since taking over as CEO in 1997, WD40 has gone from a $250 million business to now having $1.6 billion in revenue. Incredible. His great book is titled Helping People Win at Work, a business philosophy called Don't Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A. A few of the topics we got into.

Starting point is 00:03:04 The surprising number that actually predicts long-term sales success, setting proper expectations, and then thinking of life with this mentality, I never lose. I either win or I learn. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Gary Ridge. Gary, I've really been looking forward to this conversation with you, so I'm so excited to have you here on the Learning Leaders Show. First question is around leaders who sustained excellence over an extended period of time. are some of the common characteristics those people all share?

Starting point is 00:03:52 Gidey, Ryan. It's delighted to be with you this morning. I think the number one is empathy or what I would call EQ, understanding that you're not the center stage. The lights aren't on you. Number two is listening and really listening with the intent of being influenced. a low need for self-EQ, ego. You know, I think ego and hubris gets in the way a lot.

Starting point is 00:04:23 And I think then a really a true passion to want to see people succeed in a good way. It's funny you say that last part because when I asked Simon Cynic, why lead, Simon said, if you care to see others succeed, that's why you lead. So simplistic, yet so powerful. And when I asked Simon, who are some of the people that exemplify sustained excellence and who are phenomenal leaders, you are one of the people that he brought up Gary. And I'm curious, how do you and Simon have a relationship that you work together or what made him bring up your name when I asked him for just a few great leaders and you're one of the first people out of his mouth? Well, maybe he's got a short list.

Starting point is 00:05:14 Simon's a great guy. I love the simplicity of start with why. I only met Simon personally about six or eight months ago. We happened to be on a panel together at the Ernst & Young Growth Conference out at Palm Desert on building purpose-driven organizations. And Simon and I just hit it off. We just started sharing our beliefs. And since then, I took his start with Y program. And with his help, I taught it in the class that I teach at USDA, the University of San Diego,

Starting point is 00:05:54 which is about people development. And we started to work on a couple of things together. In fact, I was on the phone with him a couple of weeks ago. We're talking about some interesting stuff that we think we can do to my business. make the world a better place together. But I love the simplicity of what Simon does. It's just dumb, simple. So you are the CEO of WD40, headquartered in San Diego, California.

Starting point is 00:06:23 Gary, a fascinating role, a company whose people probably first think of your product. But what I was fascinated by when doing a ton of reading about you and reading your great book, helping people when it work that you wrote with Ken Blanchard. I was fascinated by the fact that WD40 is not simply a product, but it's an incredible company with one of perhaps the greatest cultures in all of business. And so I'd love for you to share briefly your story and how you became some of the events that led up to you becoming the CEO at WD40. Well, thank you.

Starting point is 00:07:02 Yeah, I'm truly grateful that I've had the opportunity to work. with some just remarkable people. I've been here for 30 years. I started with them down in Sydney, Australia. I transferred to the US in the 90s. I was heading up our international growth and in 1997 I got the opportunity to lead the company. We were about a little less than a quarter of the size we are now then and 80% of our business was in the United States. I had a learning moment. I say I never I never lose. I either win or learn. And I had a learning moment because at WD40, we don't make mistakes. We have a learning moment. And my big learning moment was that micromanagement was

Starting point is 00:07:49 not scalable. And if we were to take this beautiful blue and yellow can with a little red top to the world, we had to build a culture based around, you know, a very clear vision or a very clear why do we exist, a set of values that set people free, and some strategic drivers that were easy to understand. And we started on that. And through the work of great people, we've now grown from a public or a public company. We're on the NASDAQ stock exchange. We had a market cap back then of about 250 million. Last time I looked, I think, we're about 1.5 or 1.6 billion. And 80% of our businesses outside the United States, and we've doubled our business in the last 10 years.

Starting point is 00:08:34 We'll probably do the same in the next 10. So, but it's all about the people. You know, why do we exist? We exist to create positive lasting memories, not just for our end users, but in every interaction we have. So, you know, our why is we're in the memories business. How do we do that? We create these memories in every interaction we have by embracing learning

Starting point is 00:08:57 and by having a highly engaged workforce who live our values. values every day. What do we do? We market problem solving products in 176 countries. Wow. So you took it from a $250 million business to now worth $1.6 billion. The natural question is, how in the world did you do that? Well, I didn't do it. Our wonderful tribe of people did it. I've learned a long time ago, Ryan, I'm consciously incompetent. And so I really have tried and have been somewhat successful in surrounding myself with some very, very talented people. And then I've given them a set of values that set them free and told them to just go play real hard. And that's how we did it.

Starting point is 00:09:51 And we get up every day to create these memories. And, you know, the thing that really gets on my goad a lot, is that unfortunately today, in most companies around the world, 70% of people who go to work will be either disengaged or actively disengaged. So what does that mean? That means they're either working consciously or inconsiously against the vision, values, and goals of the company. Whose fault is that?

Starting point is 00:10:21 It's leadership's fault. We create that. What we did at WD40 was to create an environment where people are, We care about people. We're candid with people. We hold them accountable and we expect them to be responsible. And care and candor are the first two. And then we've created what we call a tribal culture. We did a lot of study, particularly of the Australian Aborigili tribes. And my question was, how did they all stay together in those terrible harsh conditions in the middle of Australia? And it was really, we identified there were attributes of a tribe that if we understood them and then we lived them or we promoted them within the organization, we would create this belonging. And it's all, if you know Maslow's hierarchy on the journey to self-actualization, the first two rungs in that are, you know, can I eat and am I safe?

Starting point is 00:11:19 The third one is belonging. and organizations don't create a culture of belonging. In fact, when things go bad, what do they do? They fire their people. Well, that's not what you do. You know, we are ultimately still beings of flesh, blood, and feelings, no matter what happens. So we have to create this belonging. Now, belonging doesn't mean that you just hold kumbaya singing lessons on a Friday afternoon.

Starting point is 00:11:49 There's a lot that goes into it. And the deliverable of that is we have the employee engagement of 94%. 97% of our employees globally say they love, not like, they love to tell people that they work at WD40 company. That's what it's all about. It's all about the people. Incredible, Gary. And, you know, I was doing a lot of research leading up to this because I'm fascinated by your work and I love it. And ever since Simon and I talked, I began to becoming really fast.

Starting point is 00:12:21 fascinated by you and your story. And the research suggests that the number that predicts long-term sales success is actually employee satisfaction. I think that's a stat that bears repeating. The number that predicts long-term sales success is actually employee satisfaction. Fascinating. And I know you understand that completely. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys do not do employee.

Starting point is 00:12:51 layoffs. Is that accurate? We never have. Never have. And how many years? 57 years? 63. 63 years. I've never laid off an employee, even during some really tough times. I'm guessing some potential years that weren't so great. You've never laid somebody off. Correct. In fact, we've increased our tribe by 50% in the last, I don't know, five years, I guess. It was interesting around 2008 when the global financial crisis hit us.

Starting point is 00:13:24 We all got together and we set ourselves a mission. And our vision was that when this is over, we'll all be together with at least one more tribe member. And we went about managing through the business to protect our tribe. One of the things we did is we worked out that you could get away with only one subscription. to the Wall Street Journal, right? And there are obviously opportunities during that time to cleanse things in the business that probably needed cleansing.

Starting point is 00:13:56 But the great thing that we did is at that time, we also turned up the volume on training, learning, and development. You know, you would have heard me say that our how is about embracing learning. So we said, you know, while this event goes on, because that was an event, it wasn't going to be a trend. It was, you know, don't waste a good crisis is what I said. And we got together and sure, we took some pain, but we didn't lay anybody off.

Starting point is 00:14:26 And the following year, we came out so strong that we had the best year in the company's 57-year history because we didn't have to regroup. But we did it together because we care about each other. We care about who we are. We care about what we do because we're in the memories business. And our number two value at the company is to create positive lasting memories. Now, it doesn't say sometimes create positive lasting memories. It's interesting because, Gary, especially now, from a stock perspective, I was reading something that Jim Kramer said, and he said when companies announce layoffs, unfortunately, what typically actually happens at that moment is the stock price goes up, which is just a disheartening thing to read.

Starting point is 00:15:17 feed. What do you think when you hear people like Jim Kramer saying layoffs create stock prices to increase? Because obviously, you're somewhat beholden to those stockholders. I get that as a leader of a company. And I love, though, to hear your perspective when dealing with, when hearing news about stock going up, layoffs, not laying off. I'd love for you to share with me your thoughts on that. I wrote in our letter to shareholders this year, I wrote this, the vision-crushing ritual of the pressure of quarterly earnings is not the true measure of a company's success. Now, I'm sure that there are times when companies have to resize themselves because they felt that their results didn't match the expectations that. set. So the trick here is what happened? Did they, were they, were they, were they kiting or flying expectations that were unrealistic? Were they playing to the short

Starting point is 00:16:28 timers? You know, we are not a short timer. We're a long timer. We've been in, we've been a public company since 1972. We're 63 years young as a brand. So, you know, I understand the trading mentality of Wall Street that if you want to trade, don't buy out company because we're not that type of company. And, you know, whatever Jim says, Jim says. And I respect he has a point of view. But a lot of companies lay off because it's their last resort. They didn't have a clear vision or they didn't have a clear set of values

Starting point is 00:17:07 or their strategic drivers were inadequate to take their business where they set the expectation. So, you know, now I'm lucky enough. We're lucky enough. We've never been put in that situation. And I hope a lot of that is because we lead our business differently to most people. You know, Stephen Covey has said nearly all conflict comes from differences in expectations. And I know goal setting and setting smart, which is an acronym, smart goals is a huge part of your process and a reason for your success. Could you describe how your approach to setting smart goals for your people?

Starting point is 00:17:48 Well, I don't set them. They set them. You know, the book that I wrote with Ken Blanchard, Ken's a dear friend of mine. We've been associated for nearly 20 years. And we wrote the book, helping people win at work. And the basis of that book is get a clear alignment with your people of what's expected. understand that it's somewhat achievable and then get out of their way and get behind them and do everything you can to help them be successful.

Starting point is 00:18:20 So, you know, the old saying, if you don't know where you want to go, any road will take you there. Most organisations are not clear on what their expectations are. You know, the whole employee review process is a farce. What do you do? Most companies, after the year is over, they sit down and have one conversation with someone and say, well, this is how you did and this is what you should have done better. I would say, why didn't you tell me what I needed to do better 364 days ago when you identified it

Starting point is 00:18:53 so we could have done something about it? And more importantly, why would you clear about what you expected on me? So life is about expectations and choices. And that's what we spend a lot of time on. And, you know, in our employee opinion surveys, 98% of our people say they clearly understand how their job and what they do aligns with the success metrics of the company. 99% of our people globally say their values align with the values of our company. And 96% of our people say they're excited about the future. So I'll tell you, if you've got a tribe of people that are excited about the future, that love going to work where they work, that know, they can see how their hard work actually produces something and they're applauded and rewarded and they know they're cared about, remarkable stuff happens.

Starting point is 00:19:50 And we see that in our company because our remarkable people are just doing remarkable stuff. A lot of people and leaders, I don't think there's going to be a single thing. person who disagrees with what you're saying, Gary. In fact, there's just no way. However, the actual implementation and execution of what you're saying is a whole other story where people, as you know, fail. Why is there such a huge disconnect where people know what to do? I think, I don't think, I mean, like you said, this is simplistic, hard to do, I think, but very simplistic ideas. where's that gap? Why do so many struggle and fail in that regard? Well, you hit the first nail right on the head. This is hard work. And time is not your friend.

Starting point is 00:20:43 You know, it's taken us, again, we've been working at this for 17 or 18 years. So, and, you know, most leaders, again, if you take most CEOs of public companies, you know, the average tenure now is, what, three to four years, four to five years? How can you do anything in that time? So, and why is that? Well, they're either chasing the next big dollar or, you know, they didn't have a good strategy so they get canned and someone else comes in with a miracle. So I think, number one, it's hard work.

Starting point is 00:21:17 Number two, time is not your friend. So you've got to have those that dedicated. And truly, the leaders have to be really dedicated to the fact that it's not about them. It's about the people they lead. And, you know, I get up every morning and I have the most wonderful job in the world. I get up every day to motivate and encourage people to create positive, lasting memories. The most exciting thing about that is working out all. all the ways to do that.

Starting point is 00:21:49 So that's what I get up every day to do. And that's why it's fun. I don't get up every day to sell oil in a can. Do you, I know you have a massive full-time job of supporting your people, but do you go around and help others by chance at other companies, other leaders, potentially coaching? Yeah, you know, I've been involved in a number of organizations. I do a reasonable amount of public speaking when I can. But, you know, I travel about 165,000 miles on airplanes a year, out with our tribe.

Starting point is 00:22:26 I've been on other boards. You know, maybe when this isn't my full-time job, if someone will listen to me, maybe I'll share some of my learning over time. But, you know, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I just have, you know, people say wisdom is putting knowledge to work. Well, I have a lot of wisdom, not because I'm a wise, but I'm. I've had a lot of learning moments and I love my learning moments. And, you know, I'm wiser because I never lose. I never, ever lose.

Starting point is 00:22:58 I only win or I learn. Where did you learn that? Do you have mentors or who are specific people that come to mind when you think of fantastic, great leaders? Well, I share some of them in the book that I wrote. Going back to when I grew up in Sydney, Australia, I worked at the local sports store, local hardware store, the local dry cleaner. Each one of those taught people taught me something. I worked selling newspapers when I was a young boy.

Starting point is 00:23:24 I used to deliver milk off a milk cart. My dad worked for the same company for 50 years. He taught me that it's a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. My mom, who just passed away a couple of years ago, lived to 99 and nine months old, and was certainly someone who every day said, you know, you can do anything if you just get up and hold your head high. So I think you have those learning experiences. I've learned a lot from, you know, other people I've worked with names that we know,

Starting point is 00:23:54 people like Ken Blanchard and Marshall Goldsmith, who are both friends of mine. And, you know, now Simon, who is also, I would call it a friend. And just watching. And, you know, you learn a lot by shutting up. You know, the three words that I learned that are so valuable are, I don't know. And if you're okay with those three words, amazing things can happen. In my experience, I've noticed that the most secure leaders, people who have not necessarily

Starting point is 00:24:27 self-confidence, they probably have that, but more security in themselves and understanding their being as a person and a leader will use the phrase, I don't know, actually quite a bit. And the ones who have an immense amount of insecurities for whatever reason will never, ever utter that phrase. And I found it's a really quick and somewhat easy way to learn a lot about a person to when you can sit there and look at them, especially if you're in person with him and they give you that kind of thoughtful look in their eyes. And they say, you know what? I don't know. I need to think about that. And then they go and they dig in and do research or they'll reach out to other people that could help them. Those are the type of leaders that I believe can can really

Starting point is 00:25:11 impact people, can really give others an opportunity to. to succeed, as we mentioned earlier. And I found that be very interesting. I'm glad that you said that. Yeah, and as I said earlier, Ryan, you know, we are ultimately still beings of flesh, blood, and feelings. And feelings are the most important thing.

Starting point is 00:25:32 You know, people have feelings. So what's behind that feeling? You know, we have sources of knowledge, and the sources of knowledge either are fact-based, fiction-based, or opinion-based. And that source of knowledge then drives our beliefs, our feelings, and our intentions. And our beliefs feeling intentions drives our action. So the first thing that people tend to do when they have a, they're not aligned with someone's actions or their point of view as they attack the point of view.

Starting point is 00:26:07 Well, my belief is you should go back and say, well, what fed your beliefs, feelings, and intention? to get you to that point of view. And was the source of that information, a fact, a piece of fiction, or just someone's opinion? And I think that's so important. I love, I don't know if you've seen the movie, the Bridge of Spires, but there's some great scenes in that. And the one that I remember so vividly is when Adolf was waiting to cross the bridge. And he was taught Tom Hanks said, you know, when you cross this bridge, you know, they can either kill you or they're they'll throw, you know, they'll embrace you.

Starting point is 00:26:48 And he says, well, you know, if they hug me and put me in the back of the car gently, I should be okay. If they throw me in, it's probably over. And he said, you know, are you worried about that? And he said, would that help? And I think that's a, there's a clear message there is, are we really thinking about or worrying about the things that matter? At the end of the day, he said, would that help?

Starting point is 00:27:14 And he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. And people, you know, people camouflage issues with confusion to make out how smart they are. And come on, we're just simple beings, you know, fumbling down the journey of life. You know, I can guarantee you and whoever's listening to this cast is that I can guarantee it one thing. They're not getting off this earth alive. I know that for the fact. So what you need to, and you know, and it doesn't matter how much. money you've got, how successful you've been, the box is not going to be much bigger than the

Starting point is 00:27:48 box that you go out. So what are we here for? We're here to create these positive lasting memories, encourage people to be better, you know, find ways to help them develop. That's what we're here for. Going back a little bit, I love that, Gary, it's awesome, man. Going back to, I want to use the phrase or the word, pressure. How have you handled pressure from external forces from stockholders, from people who have told you that you need to potentially, I don't know, be more profitable by cutting expenses or cutting even people. I love to learn because I think this is very common. And sometimes, you know, Simon and I had a big talk about this.

Starting point is 00:28:34 Like sometimes you hear explanations from leaders and organizations and I study a lot of different organizations and I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. I understand that they're in a really tough spot. and so but you have not ever buckled to that and and laid people off. So how have you handled that pressure? I'm really thinking about for anyone who is going to rise up into leadership roles to how they can handle the pressure that they're going to be put under. Well, I think one of the one of the key attributes of leadership that's important is you have to have a need to have a strong sense of self-worth. and sometimes that self-worth is marginally more than the facts would prove.

Starting point is 00:29:19 And I think pressure is an interesting thing is that, you know, you can be gifted pressure, and I can say I don't want your gift of pressure. But you have to listen because everybody is saying something for a reason. And, you know, I love to say, thank you for sharing. Let me take that on and I'll see what I can do with it. That doesn't mean I'm going to do anything with it, but I'm not going to do it. but I'm not going to discount it. And, you know, if there's pressure, is it real or is it selfish?

Starting point is 00:29:48 Is it for self-interest? You know, I love saying if you want the answer now, it's no. So, you know, I think, sure, give me your point of view. And I'm not going to accept a gift of your pressure, but I will certainly listen to what you have to say. And maybe there's something there. And if there is, and it's good for our tribe, and it's good for our shareholders and it's good for our people and our end users,

Starting point is 00:30:15 well, we'll thank you for that gift. If not, I'll send it back unwrapped. You have a business philosophy called Don't Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A. Can you describe that for me? Yeah, basically, I'm not here to mark people's paper. And that really came from Ken. When we first met, Ken shared how when he was a professor, I forget which university it was now, he used to give out the final exam at the beginning of the,

Starting point is 00:30:43 of the beginning of the class, at the beginning of the semester. And then he'd teach everybody the answers. And his academic, you know, colleagues would say, what the hell are you doing, Blanchard? You've given out the final paper. He said, yeah, I am. And he said, I'm going to teach him the answers.

Starting point is 00:30:57 And I went, oh, duh, why don't we do that in business? And it goes back to what I shared with you earlier, Ryan, in that, you know, what we do here is make sure people agree and in most cases, set their own expectations, aligned with our vision and our why and our how. And then our job as leaders is to make sure that we take roadblocks and headwind as much as we can out of their way so they can succeed. You know, my dad used to say winers win and I want to create a wind atmosphere. Now that doesn't mean it's easy. It's not.

Starting point is 00:31:36 You know, life wasn't meant to be easy. It was, it's life. We're going to run into stuff. We're going to bump into stuff. But our job as leaders is to make sure people are clear about where they want to go. And in going there, in riding that, in climbing that mountain, they're going to find the gold at the top of it, whatever that goal may be that they want. And then help them get there. You know, we need to throw on the ropes and pull them up and, you know, cheer them on and do the things we need to do.

Starting point is 00:32:06 And it's a balance, Ryan. It's a balance between being, leadership's a true balance between being tough-minded and tender-hearted. And the genius is in the middle, in the end. And there's research that shows that organizations where they're too tough-minded, people feel highly insecure. People where they're too tender-hearted feel highly insecure. And keeping in that middle as a leader is really. tough. I've sat down many times with my head and my hands going, holy hell, what do I do about this? You know, and I've either wanted to be too tough-minded or I've wanted to be too tender-hearted.

Starting point is 00:32:47 No good deed goes unpunished, right? And so it's getting that balance. And I think leadership is truly about balance. It's, it's, are you okay with yourself? If you're okay with yourself, you can lead. I have to believe that the, a really important aspect of your business, me if I'm wrong, but I have to believe is the decisions you make on who specifically as people you decide to bring into your business, meaning your hiring process. Do you have, or what is your specific process for hiring leaders, people, anyone in general who's going to come work for you guys at WD40? Values, attitude first, competency second. You can train people. You can teach people. It's funny, I was just being involved in the last few weeks with some interviews for a fairly senior position that were hiring in our operating unit over in Europe.

Starting point is 00:33:45 And I was talking to the managing, I was in London and the managing director of that organisation. I employed him walking down the steps of a Qantas 747 on the tarmac at Hong Kong airport some 22 years ago. and we struck up a relationship on that flight and I thought this guy is a guy that I went on my team and I shared his name's Bill Noble and I said Bill if we had to go through the rigor that we put people through today we would never get the job so we put people through a lot of rigor and it's all around understanding them from cultures and values and you know if people go on our website they'll see the first thing we talk about these are our values and if you don't match our values or want to live them, don't call us. And if they don't and they do call us,

Starting point is 00:34:37 we find out one way or another and they don't get to come into our TP. They don't become a WD40 tribe. How do you do that though? I think everyone wants that. I mean, you got to believe everyone wants to make great hires. But what's the specific process or tactics that you guys have in place to ensure we're all going to make mistakes. We're all going to have learning moments. we've all made hires that we regret. But what specifically do you guys do to avoid that as much as possible? Well, I think the first mistake is most organizations do not have a clearly defined set of operating values. So they do not know what they're looking for.

Starting point is 00:35:20 I think that's the first mistake. People say they have values, but they're on a plaque hanging in the lobby. our values are entrenched in our organization. So we, firstly, we know what we're looking for. Then secondly, through the hiring process, through a series of interviews and interactions. And I interview every person that joins the company in a senior at level that they get to spend some time with me.

Starting point is 00:35:51 And I certainly also put them through the rigor. But we have a process of interviews. viewing that helps us make sure we align our hires with our values. But I'll go back, Ryan, and say, I think the biggest issue is people don't know what they're what values they're hiring for because the values in their organization are not clear. They're not lived on a daily basis. They're not well understood. They're not talked about.

Starting point is 00:36:18 They're not rewarded. And I think that's an issue. What are the first couple of values that you look for in a leader? Well, our values at WD40 is our number one value is we value doing the right thing. And number two value is we value creating positive lasting memories in all of our relationships. And number three value is we value making it better than it is today. We value succeeding as a tribe while excelling as an individual. That's a true test.

Starting point is 00:36:47 Is the person you're hiring really about working within a tribe that they want and they'll go out of their way to help their tribe members succeed before themselves. So important. We value owning it and passionately acting on it. We're very passionate. And finally, we value sustaining the WD40 economy. Now, you notice we don't say we're all about profit. Of course we're about profit.

Starting point is 00:37:14 But we're about building a strong economy. Our values are also hierarchical. The number one value and the number two value are the most important. And most companies, if they have values, they're not hierarchical. Pick whichever one you want to pick today. The things we can ask ourselves here very often, is that the right thing to do? And will it create a positive lasting memory? And those are the two drivers that drive our decisions right throughout this organization across the world.

Starting point is 00:37:39 What are some questions you would ask a candidate to ensure that he or she does the right thing? Oh, give me an example of when you've had to make a hard decision. Okay. Well, you know, the value is not a value until it's caused you to make, to be uncomfortable. So, you know, give me a, give me an example of when you've had to make a hard decision. What was it? What did it look like? How did you feel?

Starting point is 00:38:09 Those are the sort of, tell me about the relationship where you had, tell me about the person in your organization that you worked for, that you liked working for the most. What did they do? Tell me about the person you worked for that you'd like. working for the least what behaviors didn't you like you know there's things like this that you can you can flush out how they really feel I love it man this is so good Gary hey I got I got one more question for you first of all I do want acknowledge and thank you we had a great phone conversation leading up to this and I've absolutely love learning more about you both prior to this talk and

Starting point is 00:38:46 then during it it's it's been just phenomenal I love the work you're doing I want everybody to hear this and and it spreads like crazy because I think it's needed and a lot of different places all over the world. My question is, when you hear the phrase learning leader, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Commitment. Tell me more. Well, learning is a commitment. And, you know, we have the learning moments here.

Starting point is 00:39:20 And the learning moments are, it's described as the positive or, you know, it's described as the positive, negative outcome of any situation that should that has to be openly and freely shared with all and I think a learning leader is someone who who adopts consistently the attitude that they're consciously incompetent you know when was the last time you did something for the first time right that's learning I love it man powerful stuff Gary and again I just have to thank you I love the work that you're doing. I really appreciate your investment in coming on my show here, the Learning Leaders Show. I know the great listeners are going to love this one.

Starting point is 00:40:04 And I certainly have. And I definitely want to continue our dialogue as we both progress on this leadership journey. Gary, where would you send everyone to learn more about you online? They could go to www.org the learning moment.net. They could go to my Twitter. which is at Learning Moment. Or they can go to wd40 company.com. There's plenty about the great people at WD40 there.

Starting point is 00:40:31 They're the ones that really matter, not me. Awesome. Again, I love it. Thanks so much, Gary, and look forward to continue talking, man. Lead on. All right. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over,

Starting point is 00:40:44 but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 125: Garry Ridge – How To Build A Tribal Culture (CEO WD-40)

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