An intelligent manager with generalized expertise can be smart enough to figure out intuitively the performance of their directs in a specialized area they have less knowledge in. In fact I would argue it's a must for a tech manager, and it shows in the form of a mix of Socratic questioning, knowing when to step in and get out of the way, and stopping to deep dive if necessary without micromanaging. For a good manager, I think micromanaging is a punishment or a temporary condition.
A bad tech manager a) thinks he/she must know more than their directs (no organization would ever scale if the leader in the hierarchy above knew all of what was below), b) micromanages competent people instead of giving them high level directives and course correcting at a high level when necessary c) can't tell the difference between the high performers and the slackers.
In my experience, there's a slew of bad managers out there, and in my present reality the bad ones are highly technical people who should not be managing human beings or projects.
A bad tech manager a) thinks he/she must know more than their directs (no organization would ever scale if the leader in the hierarchy above knew all of what was below), b) micromanages competent people instead of giving them high level directives and course correcting at a high level when necessary c) can't tell the difference between the high performers and the slackers.
In my experience, there's a slew of bad managers out there, and in my present reality the bad ones are highly technical people who should not be managing human beings or projects.