You Don’t Need Bosses, You Need Coaches (ft. Garry Ridge)

You Don’t Need Bosses, You Need Coaches (ft. Garry Ridge)

CEO, entrepreneur, and optimist Garry Ridge gives his Perspectives

OPENING QUOTE:

“Happy people create happy families, happy families create happy communities, happy communities create happy countries, and happy countries create a happy world. And we need a happy world, and business is the force of good for that.”

- Garry Ridge

GUEST BIO:

Garry Ridge is CEO of WD-40, having joined in Australia in 1987. He became head of the company’s Asia and Australia efforts in 1994 and CEO in 1997. Since joining the company, he’s expanded the company globally and broadened the product range— all while building an organization that is still true to its founding values. Additionally, he’s written several books on leadership and is Adjunct Professor of Leadership at San Diego University and an executive coach.

Links:

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[5:54] - The Great Escape

A reframing of the Great Resignation

Garry speaks about the trend of people resigning from companies with cultures that don’t respect them. Now is the time for organizations to ask themselves: “Are people running from your culture or running to your culture?” The question will become increasingly poignant as Gen Z will soon make up over 40% of the working population.

[17:36] - Garry’s Four Ps

People, Purpose, Passion, and Products

You can have the best strategy in the world, but if the will of the people in the organization isn’t there, you’re going to fail. Meanwhile, you can have all the passion, but without a product that fulfills a real need or without a clear company purpose, you’ll also fail. Only when all of these elements are in harmony can a company have truly global success.

[27:29] - Am I Being the Person I Want to Be?

Don’t be the Soul-Sucking CEO

After an a-ha moment when Garry realized that he wasn’t living many of the principles he felt made great leaders. So he put a post-it note on his computer that read, “Am I being the person I want to be right now?” But he didn’t stop there. He made a list of what that person looked like, trait by trait. He still uses that list as a guide for his everyday behaviors and mindsets.

[35:27] - What’s in the Petri Dish?

Creating culture is about what’s there…and what’s not

As a child, Garry grew bacteria cultures in a petri dish. When toxins appeared, they had to be removed quickly or they would make the cultures go bad and fail to grow. In company culture, the goal is the same. You have to enhance what’s in there that you want to remain, and take out what shouldn’t be there as quickly and effectively as possible.

[41:49] - Taking “Mistake” from the Dictionary

Building scar tissue at WD-40

WD-40 as a company has removed the words ‘failure’ and ‘mistake’ from the corporate vocabulary. “We don’t make mistakes. We have learning moments, and learning moments are rich. A positive or negative outcome of any situation has to be openly and freely shared to benefit all people.” 

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ABOUT PERSPECTIVES FROM THE TOP:

Discover the secrets of success for you and your organization shared by the world’s leading thinkers, doers, and trailblazers. Join Chris Roebuck, Honorary Visiting Professor of transformational leadership, leader in military, business, and government, inspiring global keynote speaker, one of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers, bestselling author, and your host of Perspectives from the Top. The show reveals a treasure trove of insights from mega trends to practical strategies and actions to take your career up a gear. From government world shapers and business mold breakers to evidence driven academics and enthusiastic entrepreneurs, each episode shows you how you can immediately use these new ideas and actions to drive your success.

Learn more at: PerspectivesFromTheTop.com

ABOUT DETROIT PODCAST STUDIOS:

In Detroit, history was made when Barry Gordy opened Motown Records back in 1960. More than just discovering great talent, Gordy built a systematic approach to launching superstars. His rigorous processes, technology, and development methods were the secret sauce behind legendary acts such as The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

As a nod to the past, Detroit Podcast Studios leverages modern versions of Motown’s processes to launch today’s most compelling podcasts. What Motown was to musical artists, Detroit Podcast Studios is to podcast artists today. With over 75 combined years of experience in content development, audio production, music scoring, storytelling, and digital marketing, Detroit Podcast Studios provides full-service development, training, and production capabilities to take podcasts from messy ideas to finely tuned hits. 

Here’s to making (podcast) history together.

Learn more at: DetroitPodcastStudios.com

ABOUT THE HOST:

Chris has shown over 21,000 leaders in over 1500 organizations globally how they can discover their secrets of success in a way that meets and beats their organizations specific challenges.

Chris has done this across sector, culture and geography - UBS, HSBC, KPMG & London Underground, legal firms to construction, tech and IT, to retail, facilities to scientific research, police to not for profit, pharmaceutical to SMEs. From the UK National Health Service of 1.4m staff and UK Government to the Red Cross in Myanmar, from Investment banks in London to Middle East Telecoms, from the Chinese Space Program leaders to HR Directors in India and global retail CEOs in Rome.

When he was the Global Head of Leadership at UBS, overseeing a staff of 70,000 across 100 countries, his team helped the bank transform organizational performance to increase profitability by 235%, market capitalization by 50% and win numerous awards. This is now a Harvard Case Study.

Chris has been quoted as a business leadership expert globally in the Harvard Business Review China, FT, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, New York Times, Business Week, Time Magazine, Washington Post, Times of India, Straits & Gulf Times and many others. He judges business awards and has done over 350 TV interviews on leadership and business on BBC, Sky, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, CNBC & CNN. He’s also skied at 60mph by accident. 

Learn more about Chris at: ChrisRoebuck.Live

CREDITS: