Comment by tracker1

I was well into my early 40s when I wound up working with someone who had most of my own personality quirks tuned up to 11. It was the most eye opening experience of my career and allowed me to see, observe and truly understand a lot of the advice I'd been given throughout my life.

Deep introspection is really hard. Assuming it is you that is the problem, and working from that assumption is anything but natural for most people. Even in your own thoughts. Arrogance, defensiveness and a skewed sense of self are things most people tend to carry with them.

I've read, listened to (audio book) and otherwise experienced a lot of leadership training in my life. A lot of it didn't really click until I was at a point where I could really self reflect, and literally seeing my own flaws in another person changed me significantly.