In the UK the title ‘professor’ is generally applied only to the most senior academics – equivalent to North American full professors – and whom anecdotal evidence indicates to be often unprepared for the increasingly expansive academic leadership roles that they are expected to fulfil. The study reported in this paper was directed at exploring the reliability of such evidence, and the ways in which professors develop or prepare themselves, or are developed or prepared by others, for what are generally considered their professorial academic leadership roles. Data were gathered by questionnaires and interviews, revealing that excessive professorial workloads often result from confusion about what constitutes academic leadership and precisely what and how much is expected of professors. Yet despite an evident dearth of ‘official’, designated, academic leadership preparation and/or development provision, professors were resourceful in drawing upon their experience, networks and intellectual capacity to develop ways of becoming and being effective members of the professoriate.