Is leadership development a waste of time? Some might say “yes”, that formal leadership training isn’t worth the time and effort. Of course, as a former corporate trainer and a current leadership development consultant, you probably can guess where I fall in response to that question. Leadership development is important, but it takes many forms. It’s not just about attending conferences or one of those fancy executive development courses. Developing leaders happens every day, whether intentionally or not. The challenge is that the people in charge of developing leaders (that would be the leaders of leaders) don’t always see their actions in the light of “development.”

Because of this lack of focus on daily development, there’s a long way to go. According to Development Dimensions International (DDI), only 25 percent of HR Managers surveyed said the capabilities of their organization’s leadership was “high quality.” Quibble with the stats if you want, but clearly there’s room for improvement.

This month’s Leadership Development Carnival is hosted by Rich Wellins of DDI. He asked carnival contributors to submit antidotes to the apparent leadership development gap. What resulted were 15 essays on the ways we can better develop leaders. You can read all of the fantastic ideas at The March 2015 Leadership Development Carnival.