Leading Professionals cover art

Leading Professionals

Leading Professionals

By: Laura Empson
Listen for free

About this listen

Welcome to Leading Professionals.

Join Professor Laura Empson as she talks to senior leaders from some of the world’s most successful professional organisations about the crucial issues they are currently facing.

Each episode reveals the realities that lie beneath the ‘professional’ veneer these highly successful organisations, and their leaders, present to the outside world.

Laura uses insights from her lifetime of researching and advising professional organisations to uncover and make sense of the complex, messy and surprisingly emotional challenges of leading professionals, and to identify key learning for all professionals.

If you are a professional in a leadership role – or if you simply want to understand your work and your organisation better – then you have come to the right place. Be ready to explore new ideas, challenge your assumptions, and learn to see your world a little differently.

Click the subscribe button and to be the first to get episodes of Leading Professionals as soon as they drop.

About Professor Laura Empson

Laura is widely recognised as one of the foremost thinkers in the fields of leadership and professional service firms. She has been conducting academic research into professional organizations for more than 30 years and acts as an advisor to the leaders of many of the world’s most successful professional organizations. Her focus is always on turning academic insights into practical action.

She is Professor in the Management of Professional Service Firms at Bayes Business School, University of London, and Professor of Leadership and Organization at Copenhagen Business School. She also holds Research Fellowships at Harvard Law School and Cambridge University. Her most recent book is Leading Professionals: Power, Politics, and Prima Donnas (2022).


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.

Laura Empson
Economics
Episodes
  • S4 EP4 - Considering the Future: How AI and Private Equity Will Change Professionals' Work
    Nov 3 2025

    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.

    Show More Show Less
    35 mins
  • S4 EP3 - Electing Leaders: How to Choose Your Leaders and How To Get Elected
    Oct 20 2025

    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.

    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • S4 EP2 - Doing the Right Thing: How to Make Ethically Tough Decisions
    Oct 6 2025

    If you are a lawyer you may be able to guess why Laura has asked Georgia Dawson, Senior Partner of Fresh Fields, 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?

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

    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.