This was a great comment.
I would also add a couple of other things:
1) Unfortunately, as a manager you are also responsible to those outside the team as the representative of the team. This means that you really DO need the status reports, so you can honestly tell those outside the team what is going on. This is as important for the team members as for those outside; the team members WANT and NEED you to be that representative, so they can be creative, constructive, and complete their work without interference.
One of my old bosses (the CIO of the company, at that time), had a great slogan: "Perception is reality". If those outside the team perceive that you have a handle on things (even if you don't), they will leave the team alone to get things done. Similarly, if the team perceives that you are shielding them from the outside pressure (even if you aren't succeeding), they will be willing to put up with a little "management intrusion" into their creative processes.
2) Sometimes, it's good to disguise things. For example, several years ago I took over a team from another project manager. This project manager had a half-hour meeting every morning, where each member of the team (15-25 people) stated what they had done yesterday, the hours spent on each task, what they planned to do today, and how many hours they had available. My upper management insisted that these meetings continue. Needless to say, they did not go over big with the team. So, I changed the meeting to a problem-solving session; someone would throw a problem on the table, and the whole team would present solutions. I facilitated, using my technical knowledge to bring the right skillsets to bear, come up with a potential solution, and assign the details of testing that solution to team members (even if they weren't the original programmer). As this problem solving went on, I gathered enough information to determine who was on and off schedule, which allowed me to manage the schedule and the budget. Quality went WAY up.
Slashdot Mirror
This was a great comment. I would also add a couple of other things: 1) Unfortunately, as a manager you are also responsible to those outside the team as the representative of the team. This means that you really DO need the status reports, so you can honestly tell those outside the team what is going on. This is as important for the team members as for those outside; the team members WANT and NEED you to be that representative, so they can be creative, constructive, and complete their work without interference. One of my old bosses (the CIO of the company, at that time), had a great slogan: "Perception is reality". If those outside the team perceive that you have a handle on things (even if you don't), they will leave the team alone to get things done. Similarly, if the team perceives that you are shielding them from the outside pressure (even if you aren't succeeding), they will be willing to put up with a little "management intrusion" into their creative processes. 2) Sometimes, it's good to disguise things. For example, several years ago I took over a team from another project manager. This project manager had a half-hour meeting every morning, where each member of the team (15-25 people) stated what they had done yesterday, the hours spent on each task, what they planned to do today, and how many hours they had available. My upper management insisted that these meetings continue. Needless to say, they did not go over big with the team. So, I changed the meeting to a problem-solving session; someone would throw a problem on the table, and the whole team would present solutions. I facilitated, using my technical knowledge to bring the right skillsets to bear, come up with a potential solution, and assign the details of testing that solution to team members (even if they weren't the original programmer). As this problem solving went on, I gathered enough information to determine who was on and off schedule, which allowed me to manage the schedule and the budget. Quality went WAY up.