Leadership development seeks to understand, predict, and intervene effectively in addressing the questions of how individuals develop as leaders and how collections of individuals develop a capacity for leadership. These questions are attracting scholars interested in the factors and processes involved in developing leaders and leadership. Presented in the special issue is a set of state-of-the-science empirical studies and theory development articles representing 21st century leadership development. We also provide a brief overview of issues related to the leadership development field – broadly construed to include individual leader development – that are especially pertinent and where the research evidence is scarce or contradictory. These areas are theoretical foundations of leadership development, practices and methods of development and talent selection for development, accurately estimating return on investment for leadership development initiatives, the role of time in developing leaders and leadership, understanding and remedying biases and inequities in leadership development, and the role of development in mitigating the so-called dark side of leadership. Although we have learned much about leader and leadership development over the past 20 years, there is an ongoing need for more research and theory development especially with respect to identifying causally and practically relevant knowledge able to inform policy.

领导力发展旨在有效地理解、预测和干预解决个人如何成为领导者以及个人集合如何发展领导能力的问题。这些问题吸引了对培养领导者和领导力所涉及的因素和过程感兴趣的学者。特刊中介绍了一组代表 21 世纪领导力发展的最新科学实证研究和理论发展文章。我们还简要概述了与领导力发展领域相关的问题——广义上包括个人领导者发展——这些问题特别相关，而且研究证据稀缺或相互矛盾。这些领域是领导力发展的理论基础，发展和人才选择促进发展的实践和方法，准确估计领导力发展计划的投资回报，时间在培养领导者和领导力中的作用，理解和纠正领导力发展中的偏见和不公平，以及发展在缓解这种情况方面的作用——称为领导力的阴暗面。尽管在过去的 20 年中我们对领导力和领导力发展有了很多了解，但仍然需要更多的研究和理论发展，特别是在确定能够为政策提供信息的因果关系和实际相关知识方面。理解和纠正领导力发展中的偏见和不平等，以及发展在减轻所谓的领导力阴暗面方面的作用。尽管在过去的 20 年中我们对领导力和领导力发展有了很多了解，但仍然需要更多的研究和理论发展，特别是在确定能够为政策提供信息的因果关系和实际相关知识方面。理解和纠正领导力发展中的偏见和不平等，以及发展在减轻所谓的领导力阴暗面方面的作用。尽管在过去的 20 年中我们对领导力和领导力发展有了很多了解，但仍然需要更多的研究和理论发展，特别是在确定能够为政策提供信息的因果关系和实际相关知识方面。