Team Lead vs Manager: Setting the Boundaries
Should I code or run meetings? If I’m not allowed to approve new features, why am I to blame for delayed delivery? If that sounds familiar to you, this piece should be helpful.
In modern IT teams, the line between a team lead and a manager can blur, causing confusion and friction. Team leads often juggle dual responsibilities—working as individual contributors while managing peers. This dynamic can lead to challenges for team leads and their managers.
How do you, as an IT leader, address these challenges? Whether you’re a manager overseeing a team of developers, a team lead trying to balance responsibilities, or a software engineer looking for a clear career path, the solutions lie in understanding and redefining roles. Let’s explore practical ways to tackle these pain points.
Team lead and manager: definitions and controversy
First, let’s briefly define the “traditional” view of the two roles. Then, we’ll explore what has changed in recent years, shaking up the status quo and creating the dilemma between team leads and managers.
Historically, the difference between team leads and managers was clear-cut. A team lead was typically more hands-on and involved in the day-to-day operations of the team.
In contrast, a manager had a broader, more strategic focus, ensuring that the team’s activities aligned with the organization’s overall objectives.
A simple analogy for those of you who watched The Office: Michael Scott is a manager, and Jim Halpert is a team lead.
Team lead: an industry standard
Building on this analogy, there’s an important point to consider: a team lead is more than a title; instead, it’s a traditional term used to describe an important role in IT. Those playing the role of a team lead may hold a title of a team manager, lead developer, or even head of development. Team lead is a commonly used term, and if you say it to anyone working in IT, they’ll very likely understand you.
The real meaning behind these titles is simple: a senior engineer with coding experience who leads a team of developers.
A team lead’s typical day-to-day responsibilities include hosting team meetings, monitoring task progress, and adjusting the team’s workload when new projects arise. They ensure that tasks are completed on time and can step in to code if needed—or if they choose to do so. However, their primary role remains facilitating the overall progress of the team.
The role of a team lead has evolved beyond software development, extending to other business areas such as HR, marketing, and sales. In these functions—as well as in software development—a team lead is someone who performs core duties like marketing, sales, or HR while simultaneously managing their peers. For instance, a sales team lead (or sales lead) might handle sales calls alongside overseeing the team.
In this article, however, our focus is primarily on team leads in IT.
Manager
Another leadership position in IT is called manager. Managers typically stand “above” team leads in the hierarchy, which means, developers report to team leads, and team leads report to managers.
A manager’s role is to ensure the team’s goals align with the overall business objectives. This will include tasks such as performance reviews, hiring, firing, promotion, and budget allocation decisions.
Differences between managers and team leads
To sum it up, here are the key differences between team leads and managers.
- Type of work: while the team lead maintains day-to-day operations of a team of developers, the manager must be able to achieve goals in the long run. The result: each role requires its own set of skills. A manager in IT might even come from a non-technical background, which is hardly an option for a team lead (although exceptions exist).
- Work style: the team lead works hand in hand with developers and other specialists, stepping in to code when their expertise might help. The manager might spend their whole day in meetings, catching up with the colleagues on this or that project.
- Place in the hierarchy: A manager can have several team leads reporting to them, dealing with several teams at the same time. A team lead’s work is limited to one team.
- The level of involvement in practicalities: A team lead is familiar with the agenda of the team to the extent where they know exactly what’s been last posted in the #bugs channel. The manager does not dive that deeply, and certainly not for every team they’re overseeing.
To understand the difference, remember that managers do all the “less sexy” job, such as managing stakeholders’ expectations in terms of the “when’s” and “how’s” of the product, securing a buy-in of the resulting product from the C-level executives, negotiating budgets, and so forth. Team leads, however, have their backs when it comes to the operational, routine execution of everything that was planned and promised.
I said that it’s managers who do the less sexy job. To be impartial: whether the first or the second role suits you better, depends on your talents and choice. IT has historically been an industry with a higher than usual turnover rate, so as an IT specialist, changing from one role to another shouldn’t be a problem.
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The controversy between the two roles
There are two key reasons why the distinction between these two roles is so important.
Reason #1: As demand for digital transformation grew, team leads began feeling overwhelmed, having to juggle manager-level tasks while still maintaining a steady development pace within their teams.
In response to COVID-19, development teams expanded rapidly. Organizations needed more developers, and managing their work became an even bigger challenge than the shortage of tech talent itself. Due to the scarcity of team leads and managers, the boundaries between these two roles have become increasingly blurred. It’s now common for team leads to become involved in management-level decisions and responsibilities.
According to Ivan Samoylov, the CTO of Alloy Software, “In 2020, when COVID hit and software development teams rapidly expanded, new standards for role allocation emerged. Previously, a team lead was typically a senior software developer with leadership skills. But during this period, we started seeing team leads with only a few months of experience in IT. The demand for digital transformation was so high that the market couldn’t keep up.”
Around this time, Ivan suggests, the debate emerged over how broad a team lead’s responsibilities should be, and to what extent these responsibilities should fall to the next link in the chain—the manager.
Reason #2: Traditionally, team leads and managers were compensated differently. Team leads might feel frustrated when they’re assigned too many responsibilities but aren’t adequately compensated for their added workload.
Address the dilemma in the workspace: how?
As a manager, you might face team leads complaining about being overburdened, managing tasks they feel are outside their scope, or even feeling undervalued.
Addressing this requires a thoughtful approach:
Evaluate the workload objectively
Together with the team lead, use time-tracking tools to analyze where the team lead’s time is spent. If they are genuinely overloaded, this data can help justify reallocating resources or adjusting project scope to higher management.
Gather perspectives
If trust with the team lead is strained, gather feedback from other team members or peers to understand their workload and behavior better. Cross-checking with multiple perspectives can shed light on underlying issues.
Identify root causes
If there’s no real overload, dig deeper. Is their compensation competitive? Are they facing pressure from toxic team members? Are there personal issues outside work?
If you’re a team lead feeling stretched thin, lacking clear boundaries, and being stuck in the middle—try these tips to communicate your issues to the manager:
Clarify responsibilities
In a meeting, suggest defining clearly which tasks fall under the team lead’s role versus the manager’s. Highlight that you being burdened with tasks outside of your scope risks dilute your effectiveness.
Seek help from tools
Rely on project management, task management, and note-taking tools to keep track of everything that’s on the plate. Request training to handle interpersonal dynamics and team conflict.
Key takeaways
- The problem “team lead vs manager” relates mainly to the blurred lines between team leads and managers. With the growing demand for IT services in organizations, team leads might feel overwhelmed with responsibilities—trying to contribute as a peer while handling managerial tasks without the authority or support of a formal manager.
- Try clearer role definitions, time-tracking insights, or creating avenues for growth. Taking proactive steps ensures your team can thrive.
- When team members feel supported, valued, and fairly compensated, they’re more likely to contribute meaningfully to the organization’s goals. By tackling the team lead vs manager dilemma head-on, you not only address individual frustrations but also foster a more productive team environment.
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