The Best Leadership Podcasts in 2026, Including Australian Picks

The best leadership podcasts in 2026 are No Bullsh!t Leadership, an Australian show, for blunt, practical lessons from a former CEO, HBR IdeaCast for management ideas grounded in research, Coaching for Leaders for one skill a week, Coaching Real Leaders to listen in on coaching sessions and 15 Minutes with the Boss for short interviews with Australian chief executives.

Leadership podcasts change. In the past year Dare to Lead ended, WorkLife changed hosts and Rural Leadership Unearthed became Rural Leaders. Every show below released a new episode in the four weeks before we looked, and seven of the fifteen are Australian, including ours.

Last checked: 20 October 2026. Show details come from each podcast's own feed and website, and chart positions from Apple Podcasts' Australian Management chart on that date.

The best leadership podcasts at a glance

How we chose these podcasts

Apple's charts mix listening, follows and completion rates on one app, and Apple says they are not a measure of the largest podcasts by listenership. They cannot tell you whether a show will help a new manager through a difficult conversation, or whether anyone is still making it.

So every show here, apart from our own, had to pass three checks:

1. It is mostly about leading people. Shows about business news, markets or startups belong in a different guide, even when leaders listen to them. WorkLife, which leans towards careers, is the closest call.
2. It is still publishing. Each show released a new episode in the four weeks to 20 October 2026. We checked the podcast's own feed rather than a directory listing.
3. It has a clear audience. The "best for" line under each pick says who that is, because a two hour military history episode and an 18 minute CEO interview suit different listeners.

We also looked at Apple Podcasts' Australian Management chart. On 20 October 2026, nine of these shows were in its top 40, led by No Bullsh!t Leadership at number two. Five of the seven Australian picks, including ours, were outside its top 100, so the Management chart alone would not have found them.

The best leadership podcasts in Australia

The best Australian leadership podcasts are No Bullsh!t Leadership for blunt, practical advice, 15 Minutes with the Boss for short interviews with Australian chief executives, Empowering Leaders for lessons from elite sport, the Future Women Leadership Series for women moving into senior roles, Habits of Leadership for long, reflective conversations and Rural Leaders for leading in regional Australia.

No Bullsh!t Leadership

No Bullsh!t Leadership was the highest placed Australian show on Apple's Australian Management chart on 20 October 2026, at number two. Former CS Energy chief executive Martin G Moore presents most episodes on his own, and his daughter Emma, who runs Your CEO Mentor with him, joins him for some. The main episode each week takes one problem, such as how to prioritise as a leader, and works through it in about 20 minutes. A four minute Moment episode on a single idea comes out each week as well.

Best for: Managers who would rather have a lesson than an interview.

15 Minutes with the Boss

15 Minutes with the Boss is The Australian Financial Review's weekly leadership interview, hosted by AFR BOSS editor Sally Patten. Each Tuesday she asks a prominent leader, usually an Australian chief executive, for the advice they have picked up over a career. Despite the name, recent episodes run closer to 18 minutes, which still fits a short commute.

Best for: Managers who want to hear Australian chief executives in their own words without giving up an hour.

Empowering Leaders

Empowering Leaders is a weekly interview hosted by Luke Darcy, who played 226 AFL games and captained the Western Bulldogs before co-founding the leadership development company Aleda. His guests come from sport, business, the arts and education, though recent guests lean towards elite sport, including John Lynch of the San Francisco 49ers.

Best for: Sport lovers keen to bring what elite teams do into an ordinary workplace.

Future Women Leadership Series

The Future Women Leadership Series, listed on FW's own site as the FW Leadership Series, is hosted by Helen McCabe, the former editor in chief of The Australian Women's Weekly, who founded FW (previously Future Women) in 2018. Weekly episodes of 30 to 40 minutes focus on the path to senior leadership for women, with interviews across business, government and the arts, including NSW Premier Chris Minns this year. This season McCabe also ends many episodes by answering a listener's leadership question.

Best for: Women aiming for a senior role, and the managers who want to help them get there.

Habits of Leadership

Habits of Leadership comes from Dan Haesler and Tim Perkins of Cut Through Coaching, who between them work with corporate and education leaders as well as elite athletes and teams. Most episodes are long conversations between one host and a guest, from researchers such as Lisa Feldman Barrett to academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert on her 804 days in an Iranian prison. It returned in August 2026 after a ten month break, with three episodes out so far, adding to an archive of more than 100.

Best for: Leaders in schools and sport as well as business, with time for a 90 minute conversation.

Rural Leaders

Rural Leaders is the podcast of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Host Oli Le Lievre, an alumnus of the foundation's Australian Rural Leadership Program and founder of Humans of Agriculture, talks with leaders from rural, regional and remote Australia about what they tried and what they learned. Since April 2026 most episodes have taken one of the foundation's leadership practices, such as awareness, adaptation or advocacy. Episodes come out about once a month.

Best for: Anyone leading in regional Australia, agriculture or a community organisation.

The JRNY Podcast

Full disclosure: this is our podcast. The JRNY Podcast is made in Western Australia and hosted by Paul Cohalan. Many guests are Perth business owners talking about what shaped the way they lead, and recent episodes mostly run between 90 minutes and two hours. It is a small independent business and resilience show rather than a dedicated leadership podcast, and it does not have the reach of most shows here. Every episode on this site has a full written transcript, and a few of the leadership lessons are at the end of this guide.

Best for: Small business owners, especially in WA, curious how other owners got through a hard stretch.

The best international leadership podcasts

HBR IdeaCast

HBR IdeaCast is a weekly Harvard Business Review podcast that began in 2006 and released its 1,100th episode on 13 October 2026. Executive editor Alison Beard and editor at large Adi Ignatius, co-hosts since 2025, interview researchers, authors and executives each Tuesday in about half an hour. It covers management broadly rather than leadership alone, so expect episodes on strategy and AI as well as on leading people.

Best for: Managers who like to hear the research behind an idea before they try it at work.

Coaching for Leaders

Coaching for Leaders is a weekly interview show that Dr Dave Stachowiak has produced independently since 2011. Each episode takes one specific management skill, such as repairing a stakeholder relationship, with an author, researcher or practitioner who has studied it. Stachowiak says he has produced it without advertisers or outside sponsors, and a free membership on its website makes the archive of more than 800 episodes searchable by topic.

Best for: New and mid career managers looking for an episode on the exact problem in front of them.

Coaching Real Leaders

Coaching Real Leaders lets you listen in on real coaching. Executive coach Muriel Wilkins, chief executive of the leadership advisory firm Paravis Partners, works through one leader's specific challenge, such as earning a promotion or leading without needing to be right. Those sessions alternate with Ask Muriel Anything, where she answers listener questions. The show began in December 2020, is listed on Harvard Business Review's website, and in 2026 moved to two episodes a month all year round.

Best for: Leaders weighing a promotion or a bigger role, and anyone curious about what a coaching session sounds like before hiring a coach.

At The Table with Patrick Lencioni

At The Table with Patrick Lencioni is a conversation rather than an interview. Lencioni, one of the founders of The Table Group consultancy and author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, usually talks with a colleague from the firm for 15 to 25 minutes about one workplace idea, such as accountability or healthy conflict in meetings. New episodes come out every second Tuesday.

Best for: Team leaders after one idea to raise at their next team meeting.

The Learning Leader Show

The Learning Leader Show is Ryan Hawk's weekly long interview with chief executives, founders, authors, athletes and coaches about how they lead and perform. The show notes list the key lessons from each conversation, which helps when you are deciding whether to commit the hour. Hawk, a former college quarterback and sales executive, has published more than 700 episodes since 2015. Recent guests include Seth Godin and Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer.

Best for: Leaders with an hour to spare who would rather hear a life story than a list of tips.

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

How Leaders Lead is hosted by David Novak, the former chairman and chief executive of Yum! Brands, the company behind KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Each weekly interview with a chief executive, founder, coach or athlete is built around one leadership lesson, spelt out in the episode title, so you can pick the episodes that match the problem in front of you. Most guests lead large US companies or teams, such as New Balance and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Best for: Managers in large organisations curious about how the people at the very top think.

Jocko Podcast

Jocko Podcast has the longest episodes in this guide. Retired US Navy SEAL Jocko Willink, usually joined by Echo Charles, talks about discipline and leadership in business, war and everyday life. Weekly episodes break down military history, leadership texts and speeches, or interview guests, many of them with combat experience, and they often run past two hours. Apple rates it explicit.

Best for: Leaders who learn best from military history and do not mind the length or the language.

WorkLife

WorkLife is TED's weekly show about careers and how work feels. Adam Grant hosted it from 2018, and after his last WorkLife season ended in June 2025 the feed ran his ReThinking interviews. Since April 2026 the host has been Molly Graham, who has spent nearly two decades inside fast growing companies, including Facebook, Quip and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. She interviews founders, operators and creatives about building a career, with recent episodes on how AI can make you a better manager and how to help your people feel heard. It is more about careers than running a team, so pair it with one of the management shows above when you step into a first leadership role.

Best for: People whose job has grown faster than they expected, especially at a startup or fast growing company.

Leadership podcasts that have changed or stopped

Some shows that still turn up in leadership podcast lists have changed. As of 20 October 2026:

• Dare to Lead. Brené Brown's leadership podcast stopped publishing in November 2025. Its feed became The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown and Adam Grant in March 2026, and that show released its final episode on 8 October 2026. The archive is still worth hearing, but no new episodes have been announced.
• HBR On Leadership. Harvard Business Review paused new episodes in June 2026 and pointed listeners to HBR IdeaCast, though the show was still eighth on Apple's Australian Management chart in October.
• Rural Leadership Unearthed. Renamed Rural Leaders in early 2026, with a new host, Oli Le Lievre.

Leadership lessons from JRNY guests

Leading people comes up in many JRNY conversations, even when nobody sets out to talk about it. Three lessons from guests, each linked to the full episode and transcript:

• Be predictable. Dan Bailey spent 11 years in the Army, then retrained as an electrician and later founded Tradie HQ. On episode 21 he says a good leader is predictable, so the team knows where the boundaries and expectations sit and the goalposts do not move from one person to the next. Coaching kids' baseball also taught him that nobody drops a catch on purpose, and he carries that into how he deals with mistakes on the job.
• Treat every employee as an expiring contract. Electrician Lewis Offenburg says on episode 22 that you hope people stay forever, but your job is to make them as good as they can be while you have them. He teaches his electricians to quote and invoice, and some of his former staff have come back to work for him.
• Lead people, not resources. Leadership and culture specialist Dave Clare, on episode 1, pushes leaders to treat people as human beings to lead rather than resources to manage.

Where to go from here

• What Is Leadership? Meaning, Examples and What It Takes, a plain answer to what leading people means, and how it differs from managing them.
• The Best Business Podcasts in Australia for 2026, for business news, investing and founder interviews.
• The Best Australian Podcasts in 2026, with the top 10 by monthly listeners and picks across news, comedy, sport and business.
• How to Build Resilience at Work: Seven Habits From Real Jobs, including what leaders can do for a team under pressure.
• Mental Toughness: What It Is and How to Build It, on holding up under pressure without hardening up.
• 9 Public Speaking Tips That Survive a Real Room, for the part of leading that happens in front of a room.
• Every episode of The JRNY Podcast, each with a full written transcript.