Award winning journalist and broadcaster Emily Maitlis didn’t get to the top of her profession by accident. While the start was more of a coincidence, her hunger for continuous learning, breaking the big news stories and creating content that has a positive and meaningful impact on society and people has seen her cover new ground in a profession that wasn’t an obvious first choice. Journalism, like leadership, also seems to be a profession where aging actually helps.
“With age I've become a better journalist. I would not want to go back to being the 28 year old me. I would not want to be that young again. I would not want to be that naive. I would not want to lose everything I've understood about the world today.”
In the third part of our Leadership Unlocked podcast series, Emily speaks to Professor Bernd Vogel, Director of the Henley Centre for Leadership, about her career highs, obstacles and learnings.
Emily’s exclusive interview with Prince Andrew in 2019 might have propelled her even more into the public consciousness, but her role in uncovering numerous public interest stories and interviewing countless senior leaders and heads of state gives her a unique insight into what it means to be a leader today.
“If you're not giving something new, then really you're wasting everyone's time. You're wasting your own time. You're wasting all of our time.”
These experiences have shaped her own approach to succeeding in a hugely competitive and cut throat profession, which she shares with Bernd, along with her thoughts on the impact of AI on her job, how to protect the truth in journalism and beyond, and what keeps her awake at 3am.
‘Leadership Unlocked’ is a podcast from the Henley Centre for Leadership at Henley Business School. Hosted by Bernd Vogel, Professor in Leadership and Founding Director of the Henley Centre for Leadership, the series explores what it means to become and be a senior leader today.
Throughout the series Bernd is joined by guests in senior leadership roles from all walks of life – including the media, retail, transport and governmental organisations – to share their leadership journeys, experiences, setbacks, learnings, and motivations, to inspire our audience.
Topics tackled throughout the series include: self-leadership and leadership as a platform; the importance of making tough choices; accepting and jumping on serendipity; the art of influencing; knowing when to get out of the way; the reality of self-doubt and setbacks; and questions around age and ego. Guests also share which leadership myths they would like to eradicate if they could, which produces some passionate responses.
Professor Bernd Vogel is a Professor in Leadership at Henley Business School. He is also Research Division Lead in Leadership, Organisations, Behaviour and Reputation, Founding Director ofHenley Centre for Leadershipand Henley Centre for Leadership Africa and an executive coach.
Having worked for over 20 years with global companies, business schools and universities, he bridges academia and practice to guide people and organisations in leadership learning journeys.
He is an expert in strategic leadership for healthy organisational energy and performance, the future of work and leadership, positive leadership, organisational leadership capability, senior management teams, followership, change and culture, multidirectional leadership for transformation and leadership development. He publishes in top-tier journals, is a regular media contributor and has authored and edited several books, such asFully Charged: How Great Leaders Boost Their Organization's Energy and Ignite High Performance, published by Harvard Business Review Press.
