Ask, “What decision will this report help you make better? What is the goal of this report?” If a report doesn’t help you prioritize your energies or make better decisions, something’s wrong with it. Culture: A lot of companies like to talk about culture, but then actually do little about it. Often it’s little more than another coercion tool foisted on employees to “Get your head in the game” and “Be a part of the team.” How much do you do to encourage and develop a positive culture that attracts and supports great people? What conditions would have to exist for the culture to identify and practice its key values? Example: If having fun is important to your culture(and it better be!), the team could have a Fun Lead who would be accountable for the team having fun each week. No, “accountable fun” is not an oxymoron. When people are busy, it’s easy to forget to have fun. Again, that person may or may not be the person organizing events, instigating practical jokes, or starting impromptu office karaoke sessions— they only need to make sure it happens regularly. Never Give Up Why can it feel hard to develop self-managing people and teams? Assuming you have hired good people (which is frequently not the case), a main cause of failure is giving up too soon. This requires patience and practice. For some of you, it might take six weeks to make a team self-managing. For others, it could be six years. But if you give up along the way, you for sure will never make it happen. Stay committed to it and never give up! For more about "turning your employees into miniCEOs", visit: www.CEOFlow.com.