Being in a leadership position requires disregarding what people think and feel in order to make the best decision. Also, as you're in the center of attention, it causes cognitive overload. Tuning down empathy is probably required to do the job.
Maybe disregarding what people feel is OK, but disregarding what they think is almost the primary folly the article is describing. Disregarding what people think is almost guaranteed to result in bad decisions.
I have a theory that we are very intuitive of people who have leverage or influence over us for example a boss who can hire or fire. We have to be very conscious of that person whereas that person doesn't have to bother reading us.
That’s a well established notion in anarchist thought as well as feminist thought (as an explanation for why women are considered inscrutable but women are also considered empathetic- because men don’t really have to put in the effort.)