Jagger’s Wisdom

Or You Can’t Always Get What You Want, But You Get What You Need.

The Rolling Stones weren’t singing about governance, but they might as well have been.

At the board table, this truth shows up every day: directors rarely get everything they want. You won’t always receive the perfect briefing package. You won’t always secure consensus for your position. You won’t always get the vote to go your way.

But if you’re paying attention, you often get exactly what you need.

The Want vs. Need Tension

Wants are easy to articulate. They live in board agendas, budget requests, performance metrics, and risk registers. We want clear financials, stronger ESG reporting, deeper strategy sessions, better talent pipelines.

Needs are subtler. They surface in the friction, the messy conversations, the questions that land with uncomfortable weight. They reveal blind spots, test assumptions, and demand a more disciplined focus.

Why This Matters in Governance

Boards don’t exist to chase every want. They exist to ensure organizations can endure and adapt in the real world where resources are finite, uncertainty is constant, and priorities collide.

Wants keep us moving. But needs force us to grow. They shift the conversation from “how do we get what we want?” to “what is the deeper capability this organization requires to thrive?”

• A delayed project forces a strategy rethink.

• A rejected proposal prompts more innovative solutions.

• A difficult exchange reveals gaps in culture or leadership.

Working with What Shows Up

When you don’t get what you want in the boardroom, pause before pushing harder. Ask:

• What is this situation here to teach us?

• What resilience, capacity, or clarity is this challenge surfacing?

• What opportunity might be embedded in the denial of our want?

The Stones had it right. You may not always get what you want. But if you stay open, curious, and willing to work through the tension, you just might get what you need—the deeper insight, stronger alignment, or better decision that sets the organization up for long-term success.

And in governance, that’s often the bigger win.