Comments on Note to CMO:: Note to CMO: I Blackberry, Therefore I Am

Michelle, I'll tell you something funny, though --...

2006-11-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Michelle, I'll tell you something funny, though -- in some pretty interesting research I had a chance to do a while back with in-depth one-on-ones with real 'road warriors', they do bemoan their fates for the amount of email they get -- but if they don't get more than the next guy, they wonder what's wrong. They feel diminished when some other guy down the hall has a worse travel schedule, has more emails, and is triple booked in needless meetings. Funny. A sign of our times.

At its worst, I was getting 100 to 150 emails a day, and as you said, 20 needed some action from me and only 5 to 10 were actually important.

Sometimes the role (plight?) of the leader is to delegate and let people grow into their respective roles. That's the only way I could ever leave town and not have the house fall down after I closed the door.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard peopl...

2006-11-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people bemoaning their lot in life by comparing the number of email they each get. When much of this is email they brought upon themselves, and the volley of CYA from staffers. The plight of the leader is to decide. Even though the other adults in the organization are all perfectly capable as well, it just doesn't feel Decided until the leader has read that email trail.

I tried one time to see how many emails I could delete without reading, out of a batch of 200. Maybe 20 - 30 were really truly emails I needed to push the company forward. Some of those were from my mother.

Michelle Edelman is director of strategic planning at NYCA, a full-service marketing agency that grows businesses with inspired ideas. To find out how NYCA can grow your business, log on to www.nyca.com.