Few leaders can avoid confrontation. There are simply too many items and employees that require oversight and guidance. The likelihood is very high that every leader will need to address numerous areas of concern within her organization at various points.
Whether the matter is personal (a coworker's attitude or manners, for example) or performance related, confronting someone about an issue can be one of the hardest things for a leader to do. It is generally unpleasant for someone to have to bring this concern forward and demand change and improvement. In fact, many leaders will go to extreme lengths to avoid it. Some reasons for this include:
Fear of how your relationship will be affected moving forward;
Concern over being seen as overly demanding or callous;
Bad feelings from past confrontations that went awry;
Second-guessing and questioning ourselves regarding our grounds and motives for the confrontation;
Negative memories from times that we were confronted by others.