Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 3 (2010), 48–51. Copyright  2010 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 1754-9426/09 Lessons for Experience: Why Wait? R. JEFFREY JACKSON AND DOUGLAS R. LINDSAY United States Air Force Academy In highlighting the value of experience in leadership development, McCall (2010) describes the 70-20-10 rule, in which chal- lenging assignments contribute the most to leadership development and formal pro- grams contribute the least. This conclusion about the impact of educational programs significantly minimizes their value and indi- cates that education is currently underper- forming in terms of developing effective leaders. Challenging this view, we suggest that educational programs, and specifically postsecondary education, could have a stronger contribution to this formula and, with some deliberate changes could signif- icantly alter the impact education has on overall leadership development. From our perspective, education pro- vides lessons for experience in which future leaders learn about leadership prior to their entry into the actual work environment. This type of learning is proactive about leadership development; that is, it prepares future leaders with information about pre- dictable and identifiable leadership, and primes current students to more clearly frame the leadership situation, to work effectively within it, and to consider both short- and long-term implications of their decisions and actions. These preparatory Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to R. Jeffrey Jackson. E-mail: jeff.jackson@usafa.edu Address: Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, United States Air Force Academy, 2354 Fairchild Drive, Suite 6L101, USAF Academy, CO 80840 R. Jeffrey Jackson and Douglas R. Lindsay, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, United States Air Force Academy. lessons could be critical antecedent factors that distinguish leaders that thrive, excel, have accelerated development, and suc- cessfully emerge following stretch assign- ments from those who don’t. This enhanced emphasis on education doesn’t dispute McCall’s recognition of the value of experi- ence, rather, it complements it by extending the factors that contribute to leadership effectiveness to earlier education. Thus, the lessons for experience create receptiveness to and augment the value drawn from the lessons from experience. Lessons for expe- rience better prepare leaders for a future, yet undeclared and undefined, leadership situation. Maximizing the value of education for future leadership effectiveness will require a reorientation of leadership education. Presently, this value is diminished for a number of understandable reasons. A cen- tral reason is the natural lag time between commencement of the educational expe- rience and assumption of a leadership position. Many years separate future lead- ers from leadership positions, masking the potential benefit of early leadership educa- tion. Not only can academic education be distant, it may also be seen as a constant. Every leader has a generally similar educa- tional background—they complete a sec- ondary and postsecondary education that enhances their general fund of knowledge, critical thinking skills, writing ability, and other academically related skills. In addi- tion, until relatively recently, undergraduate and graduate degree programs didn’t offer much coursework on leadership except for those pursuing research-based degrees. 48