What you're referencing is more leadership through training and mentorship. What he was doing sounded more like him just doing more of the work solo and hoping/expecting people would respond.

There's a really critical difference between handling something with a junior riding shotgun / doing a write up vs just doing the work yourself. He didn't touch on this, but you don't propagate any knowledge just doing it yourself, and I think that's one of the problems with his version of "leadership by example".