It is only when unpleasant situations get you to first hand experience the accompanying deep turmoil and pain that you indeed deeply empathize with other people who undergo such pain. Theoretical appreciation and hypothetical considerations do not substitute for first hand insights.
Thus whilst selecting for leadership one has to be mindful to deeply investigate & understand the quality of experience the leader to be selected, has undergone during his career. Has he/she failed and recovered ? Has he/she experienced working under a toxic Boss? Has he/she experienced career stagnation and worked way out if it ? Has he/she been a victim of bias and how did he/she blow the ceiling?
Never have great sailors been trained on smooth seas. You got to experience to empathize and understand.
I loved Gibran's closure (see the doodle)...I love the dead fallen autum leaf now complaining - "O these autum leaves ! They make so much noise! "