Leaders, "Get in Costume"!

What?

Brad Rex writes that leaders should "get in costume".  By this he means that a "leader" (he later defines leaders as "executives and managers") should spend some time working as "frontline employees".  In fact he did this for "over 1000 hours" while working for Walt Disney World (averaging around 7 hours per month).
Why?

Working with his followers, Brad learned about barriers to them providing "outstanding service" and this knowledge allowed him to fix those issues when he was "back in the office".

Real leadership

I wouldn't want to dissuade any executive or manager from spending time with their staff, but there is a "leadership" alternative.  A true leader would create an environment where employees can address the "barriers to outstanding service" themselves.  This would be much faster and more efficient than waiting for the boss to visit.  Although, to Brad's credit, he does take calls from frontline people, with whom he has "developed relationships", about new policies.
How Brad Manages Labour
He does it "intelligently", by being "acutely aware of guest traffic and deploy[ing] labour accordingly" - managing them in 15 minute increments so that their are never too few or too many staff serving customers!

Perhaps this is why the employees can't fix the problems themselves?