Why communication is still one of the main responsibilities of a leader in the 21st century

We have all faced so many situations in the workplace and definitely one of the toughest situations is #communication with team members.

In general, I have faced the following situations as tough conversations:

• When one of the team members is promoted to a new position, and another team member comes to you to complain that he/she was well-deserved for that promotion.
• You, as a manager, had a promotion plan for a team member, and unexpectedly due to the volatile nature of work, the business is not profitable enough and cutting down is the only way of survival. The employee expected to get a promotion. So, explaining this situation and the company’s decision is another tough discussion for you.
• A disappointed employee, who became so angry because of unfair treatment in a department, comes to you. From your point of view, you tried to treat everyone fairly based on their skills and competencies. Nonetheless, the employee feels discriminated against. How can you convey your message smoothly with no argument?
•  You, as an employee, feel that your current salary is not fair compared with market data, internal salary bands, and your skills. You decided to raise this issue with your manager and ask for a higher salary. It’s a common conversation in almost every company.
• In a performance review session, you believe that, although your employee reached the business targets, his/her interpersonal skills need to be greatly improved. The employee just focused on business KPIs regardless of effective communication with the rest of the team or stakeholders. Finally, you decide to consider soft skills as a point of improvement and give him/her 3 out of 5. The employee doesn’t have any sense of soft skills and expects to receive top performance score. How to handle this performance review without any sense of disappointment and also convey the importance of soft skills?
• Your employee has heard some important team news from a team member, while she/he expected to hear that directly from the line manager. This sense of neglect made him/her feel frustrated and think that he has been left out of the loop. 

As mentioned above, #commutation is definitely one of the essential skills of every single manager who should be well aware of how to handle such tough discussions effectively with a demotivated teammate.