7 Best Leadership Podcasts for Executives in 2026

A good leadership podcast should leave an executive with something useful for the next hiring decision, board conversation, succession plan, or management problem. The strongest shows are built on work that happens away from the mic, whether that's original research or firsthand experience running companies.

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We chose seven podcasts that have earned an executive audience or bring a perspective that is difficult to get elsewhere. 

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1. Briefings Podcast, Korn Ferry: Best for research-backed leadership trends

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Hosted by Korn Ferry CMO Jill Wiltfong, Briefings pulls from the firm's own leadership research and pairs it with practitioner interviews. Episodes have covered AI's effect on hiring and coaching, workplace trust, dark empathy in management, and how private equity firms are managing people through longer hold periods. The format keeps the subject matter close to decisions executives are making right now, with 2026 episodes examining high-performance talent and how AI is reshaping compensation conversations. For leaders already familiar with Korn Ferry's research, the podcast offers another way to hear how its findings translate into management decisions.

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Check out Briefings Podcast.

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2. The Diary of a CEO: Best for candid founder psychology

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Steven Bartlett built one of the largest business podcasts in the world by getting founders and executives to talk openly about failure, pressure, ambition, and decision-making under uncertainty. Guests have included Gymshark's Ben Francis on scaling a company in his twenties and Whitney Wolfe Herd on leading Bumble through public scrutiny. Episodes often run 90 minutes or longer, giving Bartlett time to stay with a decision well beyond the usual interview answer. That makes the show particularly useful for founders dealing with the transition from building a business themselves to leading a growing organization.

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Check out The Diary of a CEO.

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3. AI Builders Podcast, Christian & Timbers: Best for AI-native leadership and executive hiring

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AI Builders is the newest show on this list, launched in 2026 with JC Christian, President of Christian & Timbers, and Max Lamontel, the firm's Managing Partner for Global Aerospace & Defense, as hosts. Christian & Timbers has been in executive search for more than four decades, and the firm's founder and CEO, Jeff Christian, has appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg to discuss executive search.

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AI Builders Podcast episodes have covered the SpaceX IPO's effect on aerospace and defense recruiting, the shortage of security-cleared talent, AI-native leadership, and AI transformation in manufacturing. The firm also brings its own research into these discussions: its Elite FDE Scarcity Study surveyed more than 250 C-suite executives across 180 companies and found that fewer than one in five companies studied are seeing meaningful returns from their AI investments.

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Check out AI Builders Podcast.

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4. HBR IdeaCast: Best for research-backed management advice

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Harvard Business Review's flagship podcast draws its guests from the publication's network of researchers and operating executives. Guests like bestselling author Daniel Pink and Harvard professor Amy Edmondson tend to bring subjects that are immediately recognizable from an executive's calendar, including recent conversations on the cost of poorly run meetings and what happens when organizations pile on more initiatives than their teams can realistically execute. With an archive dating back to 2006, IdeaCast also gives executives a way to search for management questions that predate the current news cycle.

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Check out HBR IdeaCast.

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5. WorkLife with Molly Graham: Best for the human side of leadership

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Company builder Molly Graham took over WorkLife from longtime host Adam Grant in April 2026, bringing nearly two decades of experience inside fast-growing companies to the show. Graham previously held operating roles at Google, Facebook, Quip, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The current season focuses on the messier parts of work and leadership, with 2026 episodes covering career decisions, company culture, industry disruption, and the role of AI in management. Guests have included former Microsoft executive Patty Stonesifer and Chris Anderson, who led TED for more than two decades.

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Check out WorkLife with Molly Graham.

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6. Masters of Scale: Best for scaling from startup to enterprise

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Reid Hoffman remains the founding host of Masters of Scale. Jeff Berman hosts a large share of the main-feed episodes today, while Bob Safian leads the Rapid Response spinoff. The subject stays consistent: what breaks when a company goes from 50 people to 5,000, and how founders adjust their leadership style as the org chart grows underneath them. The guest list skews toward tech and venture-backed companies, but the lessons on delegation and hiring apply well beyond Silicon Valley. The archive is especially useful for comparing how the leadership job changes at different stages of company growth.

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Check out Masters of Scale.

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7. Coaching for Leaders: Best for practical, weekly management advice

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Dave Stachowiak has published an episode every week for over a decade, and the show holds up because it stays practical. Episodes stay close to specific management problems, from delegation and difficult conversations to feedback and underperformance, with guests chosen for their experience with the subject. The show's long archive doubles as a reference library when a particular management question comes up, and a newly promoted executive can usually search for the problem in front of them and find a conversation built around it.

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Check out Coaching for Leaders.

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Which Leadership Podcast Should You Listen To?

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A CEO preparing for a board discussion may get more from Briefings or HBR IdeaCast. A founder working through rapid headcount growth can turn to the Masters of Scale archive. AI Builders is the narrower choice for executives following AI hiring and how leadership requirements are changing inside AI-native companies.

Coaching for Leaders works well when the problem is more immediate. Its decade-plus archive lets executives search by the management issue they are dealing with and find an episode built around it.

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