I was recently asked how much I thought experience was relevant or important to becoming a good leader.

Learning about leadership happens when managers have an experience with which they can then relate to the appropriate theory or concepts.  Merely having an experience is not developmental in itself, especially if the manager does not view it as an opportunity to learn. A bridge of relevance must be established between both the experience and the theory for the two to be linked.  Without this bridge both elements are isolated and remain as vague memories and useless information.

I believe leadership is not learned in a classroom, neither too is it learned only through experience. 

Leadership can be learned by having an experience followed by a period of reflection which questions what has worked well and what could be improved upon, this then produces informed guidance for more positive future action.