I don't think tip toeing around people like this is a solution at all. But I've never worked in the US.
Some important questions:
1) Why are they a leader at all?
2) Why are they your chosen leader?
Just like there are plenty of employed, bad devs there are employed, bad leaders/managers.
Maybe they aren’t good at it, or maybe they’re new to managing and this is one skill where they will get better.
I'm thinking maybe we should be more careful in general with who we give these kinds of responsibilities to.
People can grow into their roles. You don’t expect junior devs to know everything one day one, so why would you expect a “junior[1]” manager?
[1] I know the article is about senior managers, but it reads as though the mean “somebody more senior than me” and not “somebody who has been managing a long time”
The difference is the damage done.
I don't think training managers on real people is a good idea.
Genuine question: how do we train managers, then? Surgeons have pigs, but even then it's not perfect, and there comes a point where they have to perform surgeries on actual humans (hopefully under supervision).