Hi,
I met similar problem with VMware Workstation Pro 12. If you have installed Workstation on non-domain member server, then only Local Administrators group suppose to have permissions to share vms properly.
Hopefully, in my case I logged on back into local administrator account, lunched Workstation and I right-clicked "Shared VMs". Then chose Permissions. In the new popup window, add any local account (or group) and assign appropriate Workstation Role (in your case I guess Administrator unless you don't have your pre-created owned role). Click OK.
If you are logged on with your personal account (this you just have assigned workstation role for), you need to re-lunch VMware Workstation and ideally logoff and logon again. You should now be able to sucesfully share vms and even manage.... share vms' permissions.
I hope it helped.