Tribe-First Leadership: Building a Culture People Want to Be a Part Of

Think about this for a moment: What if you replaced every instance of “team” in your company with “tribe”?

That’s exactly what Garry Ridge did when he served as CEO of WD-40. And he didn’t do it for branding. He did it because a tribe implies something deeper: mutual protection, shared identity, and enduring commitment. It was a deliberate framework for building a high-trust, high-performing culture — and it worked.

Ridge saw his people as more than a number in a head count. They were members of a tightly connected tribe, each with a unique role, a shared purpose, and clear Core Values that acted as daily commitments. That perspective changed how WD-40 communicated, made decisions, and defined success. And when the world was unraveling during COVID, 98% of WD-40’s people said they were excited about their place in the company’s future. That kind of alignment isn’t luck. It’s what happens when culture is baked into systems and reinforced daily.

More and more, I believe the strongest and healthiest cultures aren’t built around perks, policies, or performance plans. They’re built around belonging. And I’m not talking about belonging in the vague, feel-good sense. I mean deep cultural alignment. The kind that includes shared values, language, and standards. That makes people feel seen, safe, and useful. That makes the work matter beyond the metrics.

So let’s explore what Ridge’s tribe framework looks like in practice, and how you can translate those principles into a culture that runs deep, scales with you, and actually holds under pressure.

Belonging Starts with Identity, Not Incentives

Ridge used the word “tribe” with intention. Not to be different, but because it captured something most companies overlook: a sense of shared identity. And this isn't referring to branding or personality. It's a clear understanding of who you are as a company — why you exist, what you believe in, and how your team works together.

For Ridge, a tribe isn’t just a metaphor. It's a cultural operating system. One where people don’t just show up to do work — they show up to grow and protect something they believe in. They understand how their work fits into something bigger. That kind of connection only happens when people are clear on why the company exists, how success is defined, and where they fit in.

A culture like that doesn’t happen by accident. You design for it. And you reinforce it through language, rituals, and how decisions actually get made.

A lot of founders try to take shortcuts to improve the culture with perks or performance incentives. But there are no shortcuts to belonging. You have to build it, patiently and intentionally, until people truly believe they’re part of it.

So ask yourself this: Do your people know what your company stands for? Can they see themselves in the story you’re telling?

Leadership Isn’t About Control — It’s About Stewardship

If you want a healthy tribe, you can’t lead like you’re managing a project. You have to lead like you’re intentionally stewarding a very deliberate culture. That means shifting your mindset from control to coaching, from authority to accountability.

That’s what Ridge did. He made a hard pivot away from top-down performance reviews and toward a model built on mutual success. He called it: "Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A."

That phrase redefines the role of leaders. We exist to remove obstacles, to be accountable to our people, and to use performance conversations as coaching moments, not audits.

And that may change the relationship a lot of leaders have with their team members. Success becomes a shared goal. Standards are still high, but so is the support. There’s no hiding, guessing, or excuses for not having the conversation.

The best founders I know are already wired this way. They don’t need permission to lead with clarity and care. They already believe in high standards, and they’re not afraid to hold others to them. But what makes it really work is how they show up between the milestones: the weekly 1-on-1s, the open feedback loops, the commitment to making sure people have what they need to win. Tools like Ninety can help keep that rhythm visible and consistent so the support becomes part of how your company actually runs.

That’s the difference between managing a team and leading a tribe. One enforces compliance. The other builds commitment. And only one scales.

Make It Safe to Learn

One of the most powerful things Ridge did at WD-40 was eliminate the word “failure” from the culture. In his world, mistakes weren’t punished or hidden. They were shared, studied, and reframed as, what he called, “learning moments.” (At Ninety, we often ask, "Did we win or learn, or both?")

That shift did something important: It took fear out of the system.

When people believe a mistake might cost them credibility, they play it safe by keeping quiet. But when they know learning is an understood and expected part of the process, they take initiative, solve problems faster, and speak up before something breaks.

That’s how you build a high-trust, high-velocity culture: not by being soft on performance, but by being serious about making your people feel safe to learn.

As founders and/or CEOs, we can model this by admitting when we get something wrong. And by celebrating people for surfacing insights, including both wins and missteps that make us smarter as a tribe.

When a culture rewards transparency and trust over perfection, it creates the conditions for real innovation. People stop hiding issues (We call this "succeed or escalate"). They bring them forward early while they’re still small, which leads to faster cycles, cleaner handoffs, and fewer surprises.

And when a storm hits, that trust doesn’t just evaporate. It holds everyone together. Because your people don’t need to be told to protect the culture. They already believe it’s worth protecting.

Our work life is one critical area of our short journey in this world where we find meaning, belonging, purpose, and identity.

Garry Ridge

4 Pillars of a Tribe-First Culture

Tribe-first leadership isn’t just about building a kind culture. It’s about building a strong one.

When you combine warmth with accountability, when you lead with empathy and back it with clarity, you get something that endures.

That’s what Ridge was after when he created four pillars of a strong organization: Care, Candor, Accountability, and Responsibility. None of them work alone. But together, they create the cultural integrity a tribe needs to thrive.

1. Care: Leaders are genuinely invested in the lives, growth, and well-being of their team members (and the team members see it and feel it). That genuine investment inspires loyalty, effort, and a shared sense of purpose.
2. Candor: There’s no faking, no hiding, and no pretending. People say the truth, even when it’s hard. And because care is already established, honesty doesn’t feel risky. It just feels like alignment.
3. Accountability: People know what they own, and they know where their work fits into the bigger picture. And no one is above the standard, not even leadership.
4. Responsibility: There's a shared understanding that culture isn’t someone else’s job. Everyone is responsible for protecting it and stepping in to fix it when they see something’s off.

When these four show up consistently, something changes. The team starts carrying the culture forward themselves: a hard conversation that happens instead of getting avoided, a small win that gets recognized, someone speaking up when they notice something that doesn't align.

That’s how you know the culture’s strong. Not because it’s loud or flashy, but because it holds, even when you’re not in the room.

Tribe-First Culture Starts with You

Great founders don’t build strong cultures by getting everything right on day one. They build them by deciding what matters most and refusing to treat those things as optional.

Tribe-first leadership is about belonging, and that means creating something your people not only want to be a part of, they believe in. As leaders, we build that belonging every day in how we talk about the work. In how we deliver feedback. In how we lead in the small moments. In what we protect, even when it’s inconvenient.

If you want a culture that holds under pressure, you have to design for it. You have to model it. And you have to reinforce it until your people don’t just understand it, they embody it.

That’s what Garry Ridge got right. And it’s what any of us can choose to build.

The question isn’t whether it’s possible. It's whether you make it a priority.