• 43 minutes 7 seconds
    S4 EP6 - Leading Complex Change: Breaking Through Practical Barriers and Political Resistance

    Guest: Dame Emily Lawson, formerly COO, NHS England, and Head of Number 10's Delivery Unit


    Emily has considerable experience of leading change in complex professional organisations, including leading the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine programme across the UK. 


    Laura asks: How do you manage to not be overwhelmed by complexity or discouraged by failure? How do you bring the right team together and deal with covert resistance?


    Website: https://www.lauraempson.com/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadingProfessionals

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-laura-empson-69820773/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 December 2025, 5:00 am
  • 37 minutes 29 seconds
    S4 EP5 - Becoming "Professional": How to Look, Sound, Act and Feel like a Professional

    Guest: Paul Lewis, Firmwide Managing Partner of Linklaters


    If you do not fit the conventional image of an elite professional, how do you persuade others that you are, and how do you learn to feel like one?


    Paul and Laura discuss his own very personal experiences of “becoming professional”. What can be done to help people from non-professional backgrounds to thrive within elite professional organisations?


    Website: https://www.lauraempson.com/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadingProfessionals

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-laura-empson-69820773/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    17 November 2025, 5:00 am
  • 35 minutes 21 seconds
    S4 EP4 - Considering the Future: How AI and Private Equity Will Change Professionals' Work

    Guest: Michael Izza CBE, CEO (former) of ICAEW


    For almost 20 years, Michael led the ICAEW, with more than 200,000 members in almost 150 countries. 


    So he has a distinctively long-term and global perspective on the accounting profession. 


    Focusing on the interrelated changes of Gen AI and PE ownership, Laura and Michael explore: What is already happening and what changes lie ahead?


    Website: https://www.lauraempson.com

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadingProfessionals

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-laura-empson-69820773/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    3 November 2025, 5:00 am
  • 32 minutes 28 seconds
    S4 EP3 - Electing Leaders: How to Choose Your Leaders and How To Get Elected

    Guest: Michael Ensser, Chair of Egon Zehnder


    Laura asks Michael: Why does a world leading firm of leadership consultants choose to elect their senior leaders, and how do their elections actually work? 


    They discuss what really goes on behind the scenes of professional service firms’ carefully stage managed leadership elections.  


    Website: https://www.lauraempson.com

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadingProfessionals

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-laura-empson-69820773/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    20 October 2025, 4:00 am
  • 33 minutes 36 seconds
    S4 EP2 - Doing the Right Thing: How to Make Ethically Tough Decisions

    Guest: Georgia Dawson, Senior Partner of Freshfields


    If you are a lawyer you may be able to guess why Laura asks Georgia to explore the challenging theme of professional ethics with her.


    In a complex commercial, social, and political environment, how do you balance the competing interests of multiple stakeholders?


    How do you decide, what is the 'right' thing? And then, how do you make sure you do it? 


    Website: https://www.lauraempson.com/

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadingProfessionals

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-laura-empson-69820773/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    6 October 2025, 4:00 am
  • 43 minutes 16 seconds
    S4 EP1 - Leading in Uncertain Times: How to Respond to Geopolitical Change and AI Disruption

     Guest: Fabien Curto Millet, Chief Economist of Google.

     

    Fabien joins Laura to discuss how he and his team of economists anticipate, analyse, and understand the scale of change with which Google must contend. 


    How does he lead his team of professionals, and manage himself, during these uncertain times? And what does he remember from when Laura taught him Strategy at Oxford 25 years ago?


    Website: https://www.lauraempson.com

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadingProfessionals

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-laura-empson-69820773/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    22 September 2025, 4:00 am
  • 4 minutes 31 seconds
    S4 EP0 Welcome to Leading Professionals

    Professor Laura Empson introduces key topics and guests from the upcoming series.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    15 September 2025, 4:00 am
  • 28 minutes 23 seconds
    David Bickford: Spies as professionals
    What are the parallels between the worlds of espionage and professional services? Laura and Tony talk to David Bickford, previously General Counsel to MI5 and MI6, about his role as the agencies’ Legal Director and Under Secretary of State. They explore how to build trust when professionals are working remotely, how to collaborate when knowledge is shared on a need-to-know basis, and how to stop powerful professionals from going rogue.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    11 December 2023, 5:00 am
  • 35 minutes 10 seconds
    Katherine White: Leading discretely
    Laura and Tony speak to Katherine White, the first Chief Talent Officer of global executive search firm, Spencer Stuart. They explore the challenges of being a senior leader when you are not a fee-earner, and of leading the so-called talent when the fee-earners themselves do not see you as the talent. Katherine explains how she built trust and influence, and how she learnt to add value quickly while working slowly and discretely to bring about change.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    27 November 2023, 5:00 am
  • 35 minutes 49 seconds
    Gianpiero Petriglieri: Coming out of the psychological closet
    Gianpiero Petriglieri, Associate Professor at INSEAD, is ranked as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world. Laura and Tony talk to him about the difficult emotions that often stay hidden and suppressed in organisations and individuals, and how leaders of professional organisations can become more effective when they engage more directly with these emotions. 

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    13 November 2023, 5:00 am
  • 35 minutes 21 seconds
    June Sarpong: Leading as an outsider
    Laura and Tony are joined by June Sarpong OBE, the BBC’s first Global Director of Creative Diversity. They explore how to bring about disruptive change in a large, complex and high-profile professional organisation, and how to get things done quickly in an environment when decisions are taken slowly. June explains how she managed to do all this as an outsider with no previous leadership experience, but a great deal of broadcast experience.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    30 October 2023, 5:00 am
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