As engineers, we have an advantage because systems can push valuable information up without the team needing to do much of anything. If you want to know the status of work, look at the version control system and the ticketing system. If you want to know how stable the systems are, subscribe to information about the alerts, look at the metrics, follow what has happened in on-call. The worst micromanagers are those who constantly ask for information they could easily get themselves. It’s OK to ask for status summaries and OK to use your team as a way of surfacing the most important information from all of these sources, but use a light touch. The team will not be productive or happy spending half their time gathering information for you that you could easily find yourself. And remember, this information is just a piece of the context, not the whole picture, and it means nothing without the goals just discussed.