Delegation is one of the most important managerial skills, yet delegation does not come easily to most people. Three major problems in delegating are (a) neglecting to check progress, (b) telling someone exactly how to perform the task, and (c) checking up on someone too frequently. Consult the chapter section about delegation, empowerment, and decentralization for suggestions about effective delegation as you perform this exercise. Your task is to delegate a work or personal-life task to somebody within the next ten days. Then reflect on what happened in terms of such factors as these:
• How much difficulty did you have in getting the person to accept the delegation?
• How much checking up on the person was needed?
• Did the task get accomplished?
• What did you learn about delegation?