This is what you want… this is what you get?
I recently became hooked on the BBC series ‘Industry’, which is currently available on iPlayer. For those who haven’t seen it, it follows a group of graduates as they embark on their careers in a fictional American investment bank, Pierpoint and Co. Pierpoint encapsulates the perceived worst elements of the financial services culture, with rude, chauvinistic, money-driven, and largely (but not exclusively) male bankers indulging in long hours, dodgy behaviours, sex, and drugs. It certainly didn’t match my experience of working in financial services!
Regardless of the unsavoury characters, it is a great show with some fantastic acting and writing. The soundtrack is also memorable and during the second series, the song ‘This Is What You Want…. This Is What You Get’ by Public Image Ltd is featured. I’d never heard this song, or the band before. Turns out they’re a ‘post punk’ group set up in 1978 by former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) and are still together today.
The song reflects the self-serving attitude of many of the characters in the show, but also got me thinking about our intentions in work and life. I’m big on the idea of being intentional with leadership, and the lyrics brought to mind the question of intention vs impact that we often talk about in leadership development.
Good leaders are intentional, clear on what they want to achieve from a conversation, meeting, or presentation – if they’re not, they’ll probably end up with an outcome they didn’t want. However, that’s where the title of the song falls short. We can’t just think about what we want, we have to think about how we go about getting it. If we don’t, our intent and impact are unlikely to match.
That’s why we need to be completely intentional in our leadership, both in terms of what we do, and how we do it. Thinking about everything we do as leaders – how we speak, how we show up, how we role model, and how we connect – is at the heart of creating the positive impact (and the high performance) we strive for.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be talking more about intentional leadership: what it means, why it’s important, and how you can learn more about it. If you can’t wait that long, then contact us at info@hex-development.com and we can talk more. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you haven’t seen Industry or checked out the music of Public Image Ltd, then they’re worth a look (although beware, there are some adult themes).
