Hi there,

I really hope that you have enjoyed one or more of the first four episodes of this In The Business of Healthy Masculinity platform with Colin, Helen, Stepheni, and/or Josh?

If you have listened in, please do hot reply and let us know what you are taking away, and what you may challenge.

I personally have certainly learned a lot from these conversations and I have been reminded of our innate capacity for creativity and doing good in the world, and how we can DO and BE that goodness without shying away from the worlds pain and atrocities. It’s always YES/AND, not either/or.

As we get going today, my gratitude, as always, to Anna deNardin who creates all of the artwork, graphics, and shapes language to help these conversations offer the most value to you.

One embodied executive leader and human being that I value so much is ex-WD40 CEO Garry Ridge, and I am grateful that he has joined me on episode #5 of the In The Business of Healthy Masculinity podcast/videocast.

A bit about Garry if you do not know him, and a reminder if you do:

Garry Ridge is the Chairman Emeritus of WD-40 Company, where he served as CEO for 25 years and was ranked No. 4 on Inc. Magazine’s World’s Top 10 CEOs. He holds a Master’s in Executive Leadership from the University of San Diego and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from National University.

Known globally as The Culture Coach, Garry helps leaders create workplaces where people feel safe, valued, and inspired.

Through his firm, The Learning Moment, he works with executives to build cultures of trust, collaboration, and purpose. He also serves on the boards of The Gorilla Glue Company and Eastridge Workforce Solutions.

A bestselling author and sought-after speaker, Garry co-authored Helping People Win at Work with Ken Blanchard and wrote the USA Today bestseller Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It. Affectionately known as The Dean of Dumbassery, he champions “learning moments,” turning mistakes into opportunities for growth.

How often have you heard a CEO (ex-CEO) be so vulnerable, humble, and honest?

Not so often in my experience of life! And certainly not one of a multi-thousand employee, multi-billion dollar turnover company.

You can follow Garry’s work and reach him as follows:

Website - https://thelearningmoment.net/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garryridge/

As the latest hype-bubble, AI, continues to take hold, I was really inspired to hear Garry’s simple algorithm for organisational culture.

A simple yet effective ‘human algorithm’ for healthy impact

According to Garry ‘Success = Will of the People X Strategy’

What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts?

I like to bring this similar message to life through the chronically bad global engagement stats from Gallup which show:

Honestly, it makes me even more mad then when I see multinational companies, especially, laying of thousands of staff because they are not meeting an artificial number that the financial markets are looking for. Even if they are making millions or even billions in profits.

Combine this unhealthy mindset with chronically low engagement and you have the OPPOSITE of what Garry and his team co-created at WD-40.

Designing cultures of genuinely high-performance isn’t easy!

Unlocking human potential through organisational culture is a challenge.

I know first-hand as I have led a team change over 3 years that resulted in an extra Euro 6m in sales and over Euro 1.5m in gross margin by targeting a wide range of cultural interventions.

At a much larger scale, Garry shares below that “if this (intentionally developing culture) was soft and easy, everybody would be doing it.”

Belonging, trust, autonomy, recognition, and an active focus on reducing fear are just some of the intentional cultural focus areas that Garry advocates for.

Here alone is where I witness big disconnects in too many, especially, corporate spaces today in 2025.

Because you cannot tie solid metrics to any of the above cultural traits, too often they are ignored, or at best, performed.

To what extent does the culture of your workplace or other groups truly foster this degree of cultural intentionality?

Embodying BOTH healthy masculine and feminine traits/energy

One of the other things that makes Garry stand out as such a powerful leader, for me,is the way he models a healthy balance between his masculine and feminine traits/behaviour.

This is what it means to be embodied as a human, for me at least, and as a leader and he models this so well as he explains the name of his latest book:

One of the things that always makes me smile about Garry is the way he has worked with his teams to deliver brilliant outcomes, whilst never losing his humanity.

This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t make tough decisions, and it doesn’t mean not being assertive, both healthily masculine traits when modelled with inclusivity and humanity.

What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts?

Healthy masculinity as an antidote to fear?

If you saw/listened to last week's episode with Josh Allan Dykstra, he speaks to this topic directly as well in that less than 10% of executives are in flow-state. Is it just busyness, or could fear be a factor?

In this above clip Garry shares some fantastic insights as to how he has learned from leading business and leadership academics and taken bits from all of them to fuse his own healthy, unique leadership style.

I really appreciate how much Garry knows himself; he is willing to listen, to learn, and then has the courage, and willingness to run experiments and embed any learning, even as a CEO.

What have you learned recently? How did that impact you?

Wrapping up this episode

I really hope that you dive into the full 23-minutes of this conversation and we would love to learn what you take away, what sparks your curiosity, and what you may challenge.

In The Business of Healthy Masculinity is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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