So how attached are you to your project? Do you need a Blackberry and constant access to run it? Or, at the other extreme, can you go on safari for a month and have your project not miss a beat?

We continue to see clients who feel that rapidly answering email from their co-workers is a badge of courage – a sign of importance. But is it important, or a sign of control oriented obsession?

I carry a phone with Windows Mobile and it synchs with Outlook so I can see all my email, tasks, and contacts real-time. Not long ago l found myself reading my email while driving around Hartford on Interstate 84. This started me thinking about smart phone email access as an obsession, not to mention a safety hazard ... “No officer, I’m not talking, this is email!”

I used to feel good about my projects when I could travel for a week or two and the project would not falter. Somewhere there was a shift so that unless you can be reached RIGHT NOW it’s viewed as a career limiting move.

The virtues of delegation, clear roles and responsibilities, and so many basic and sound management practices have apparently been replaced by “let's get the boss on the phone... on IM... in a conference call... in a meeting."

The need for leaders to have constant access to their team is today’s version of decades old chain-of command behavior - using new technology tools to enable an old and obsolete management style. While newer, Internetworked Teams have critical communications needs; they thrive based on clear mission and responsibilities, not on minute by minute access to the boss.

Some of you will read this and say, "I don’t get it." You believe that email is all-important and that spending half your work life on email and the other half in meetings is just how it is. I contend that these are signs of the decline in our understanding of how to lead, our ability to manage, our willingness to delegate.