As just about any manager will tell you, managing projects and tasks is hard enough, but managing people is often the hardest of all management responsibilities.

So many different personalities, learning styles, work ethics, belief systems, cultural or geographic or economic backgrounds, behavioral patterns, assumptions, psychological sensitivities... the list of variables to be taken into account in human relations, including in a business setting, is endless.

Add to that the need to protect the reputation and interests of the business itself... and the potential for serious consequences arising because of what you say can loom large.

Heading up a group of work colleagues is, in a word, fraught. Or complicated. And fraught with complications.