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What differentiates a manager from a team leader? [closed]
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What differentiates a manager from a team leader (TL)? What is expected of a manager as opposed to a team leader?
team manager leadership
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
closed as off-topic by Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, Wesley Long, yochannah Nov 23 '14 at 19:36
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions seeking advice on company-specific regulations, agreements, or policies should be directed to your manager or HR department. Questions that address only a specific company or position are of limited use to future visitors. Questions seeking legal advice should be directed to legal professionals. For more information, click here." – Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, yochannah
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
What differentiates a manager from a team leader (TL)? What is expected of a manager as opposed to a team leader?
team manager leadership
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
closed as off-topic by Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, Wesley Long, yochannah Nov 23 '14 at 19:36
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions seeking advice on company-specific regulations, agreements, or policies should be directed to your manager or HR department. Questions that address only a specific company or position are of limited use to future visitors. Questions seeking legal advice should be directed to legal professionals. For more information, click here." – Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, yochannah
By manager, do you mean project manager, functional manager or just a generic manager in the organization?
– JB King
Nov 23 '14 at 6:45
In my experience, "manager" means someone who handles the interface between the team and the rest of the business at large -- personnel issues, performance evaluations, making sure all the right paperwork gets done, and passing policy/direction-setting directives down from above. The team leader is the person who makes sure that the chunk of work that they're responsible for gets done well and on time -- dividing up the task and making sure appropriate people take appropriate chunks of it, tracking their progress, clearing technical issues out of the way, interfacing to peer teams.
– keshlam
Nov 23 '14 at 23:04
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
What differentiates a manager from a team leader (TL)? What is expected of a manager as opposed to a team leader?
team manager leadership
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
What differentiates a manager from a team leader (TL)? What is expected of a manager as opposed to a team leader?
team manager leadership
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
asked Nov 23 '14 at 6:30
PowerApp101
1285
1285
closed as off-topic by Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, Wesley Long, yochannah Nov 23 '14 at 19:36
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions seeking advice on company-specific regulations, agreements, or policies should be directed to your manager or HR department. Questions that address only a specific company or position are of limited use to future visitors. Questions seeking legal advice should be directed to legal professionals. For more information, click here." – Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, yochannah
closed as off-topic by Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, Wesley Long, yochannah Nov 23 '14 at 19:36
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "Questions seeking advice on company-specific regulations, agreements, or policies should be directed to your manager or HR department. Questions that address only a specific company or position are of limited use to future visitors. Questions seeking legal advice should be directed to legal professionals. For more information, click here." – Justin Cave, gnat, Jan Doggen, yochannah
By manager, do you mean project manager, functional manager or just a generic manager in the organization?
– JB King
Nov 23 '14 at 6:45
In my experience, "manager" means someone who handles the interface between the team and the rest of the business at large -- personnel issues, performance evaluations, making sure all the right paperwork gets done, and passing policy/direction-setting directives down from above. The team leader is the person who makes sure that the chunk of work that they're responsible for gets done well and on time -- dividing up the task and making sure appropriate people take appropriate chunks of it, tracking their progress, clearing technical issues out of the way, interfacing to peer teams.
– keshlam
Nov 23 '14 at 23:04
suggest improvements |Â
By manager, do you mean project manager, functional manager or just a generic manager in the organization?
– JB King
Nov 23 '14 at 6:45
In my experience, "manager" means someone who handles the interface between the team and the rest of the business at large -- personnel issues, performance evaluations, making sure all the right paperwork gets done, and passing policy/direction-setting directives down from above. The team leader is the person who makes sure that the chunk of work that they're responsible for gets done well and on time -- dividing up the task and making sure appropriate people take appropriate chunks of it, tracking their progress, clearing technical issues out of the way, interfacing to peer teams.
– keshlam
Nov 23 '14 at 23:04
By manager, do you mean project manager, functional manager or just a generic manager in the organization?
– JB King
Nov 23 '14 at 6:45
By manager, do you mean project manager, functional manager or just a generic manager in the organization?
– JB King
Nov 23 '14 at 6:45
In my experience, "manager" means someone who handles the interface between the team and the rest of the business at large -- personnel issues, performance evaluations, making sure all the right paperwork gets done, and passing policy/direction-setting directives down from above. The team leader is the person who makes sure that the chunk of work that they're responsible for gets done well and on time -- dividing up the task and making sure appropriate people take appropriate chunks of it, tracking their progress, clearing technical issues out of the way, interfacing to peer teams.
– keshlam
Nov 23 '14 at 23:04
In my experience, "manager" means someone who handles the interface between the team and the rest of the business at large -- personnel issues, performance evaluations, making sure all the right paperwork gets done, and passing policy/direction-setting directives down from above. The team leader is the person who makes sure that the chunk of work that they're responsible for gets done well and on time -- dividing up the task and making sure appropriate people take appropriate chunks of it, tracking their progress, clearing technical issues out of the way, interfacing to peer teams.
– keshlam
Nov 23 '14 at 23:04
suggest improvements |Â
3 Answers
3
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oldest
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up vote
8
down vote
accepted
This is probably impossible to answer because it generally depends heavily on the specifics of the organization. What one company calls a "team lead" another company might call a "manager" while other organizations may not make any sort of distinction between the two.
Broadly, though, if an organization makes a distinction between the two roles, it is likely that a "team lead" would be someone that spends part of their time doing the same thing that members of the team are doing and part of their time doing management tasks while a "manager" would be someone that no longer spends a significant fraction of their time doing the same things that the members of their team are doing in order to focus almost exclusively on management tasks. A "team lead" probably doesn't have HR responsibility for the members of the team (so the "team lead" probably doesn't do annual performance reviews, doesn't have responsibility for hiring and firing, etc.) while a "manager" probably does.
As I said initially, though, the exact parameters are likely to vary from one organization to another. There is no guarantee that one organization's "manager" isn't going to be spending a significant amount of time doing the same work their team is responsible for. And it's entirely possible that another organization's "team lead" is going to be responsible for hiring and firing.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
1
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
2
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Team leader tends to be hands on, supervisory and is generally given a task (whether that's micro or macro) for his team to achieve in x time. They tend to do some of the work themselves, delegate the rest to others, then keep track of the team to ensure the work gets done by reallocating resource as needed.
A manager tends to be more hands off and strategic - they will usually delegate the tasks to teams rather than parcelling out the work individually. They tend to be less involved in the day to day activities of the individuals they are managing, and focus more on the bigger picture
Of course as with anything there's a huge amount of fuzziness here - some companies use one or other term exclusively, and all managers get involved to some extent, while all team leaders have to be strategic to some extent
If you think of team leader as another name for a low end manager (as an attempt to delineate between supervisory and strategic management) that can sometimes help - and allows you to remember that high and low level managers tend to have a lot of crossover in role, scope and behaviour.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Both are titles, so they can mean anything. The same title can even mean different things within the same company.
That aside, usually a team lead is primus inter pares. The team lead is the title of someone leading a team while being part of the team.
A manager just manages something. A manager doesn't need to manage people (e.g. office manager). A manager that leads a team doesn't need to be part of that team. A manager can manage people that are in different teams.
A team lead can almost always be considered to be a manager, but the same is not true the other way around.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
suggest improvements |Â
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
This is probably impossible to answer because it generally depends heavily on the specifics of the organization. What one company calls a "team lead" another company might call a "manager" while other organizations may not make any sort of distinction between the two.
Broadly, though, if an organization makes a distinction between the two roles, it is likely that a "team lead" would be someone that spends part of their time doing the same thing that members of the team are doing and part of their time doing management tasks while a "manager" would be someone that no longer spends a significant fraction of their time doing the same things that the members of their team are doing in order to focus almost exclusively on management tasks. A "team lead" probably doesn't have HR responsibility for the members of the team (so the "team lead" probably doesn't do annual performance reviews, doesn't have responsibility for hiring and firing, etc.) while a "manager" probably does.
As I said initially, though, the exact parameters are likely to vary from one organization to another. There is no guarantee that one organization's "manager" isn't going to be spending a significant amount of time doing the same work their team is responsible for. And it's entirely possible that another organization's "team lead" is going to be responsible for hiring and firing.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
1
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
2
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
This is probably impossible to answer because it generally depends heavily on the specifics of the organization. What one company calls a "team lead" another company might call a "manager" while other organizations may not make any sort of distinction between the two.
Broadly, though, if an organization makes a distinction between the two roles, it is likely that a "team lead" would be someone that spends part of their time doing the same thing that members of the team are doing and part of their time doing management tasks while a "manager" would be someone that no longer spends a significant fraction of their time doing the same things that the members of their team are doing in order to focus almost exclusively on management tasks. A "team lead" probably doesn't have HR responsibility for the members of the team (so the "team lead" probably doesn't do annual performance reviews, doesn't have responsibility for hiring and firing, etc.) while a "manager" probably does.
As I said initially, though, the exact parameters are likely to vary from one organization to another. There is no guarantee that one organization's "manager" isn't going to be spending a significant amount of time doing the same work their team is responsible for. And it's entirely possible that another organization's "team lead" is going to be responsible for hiring and firing.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
1
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
2
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
This is probably impossible to answer because it generally depends heavily on the specifics of the organization. What one company calls a "team lead" another company might call a "manager" while other organizations may not make any sort of distinction between the two.
Broadly, though, if an organization makes a distinction between the two roles, it is likely that a "team lead" would be someone that spends part of their time doing the same thing that members of the team are doing and part of their time doing management tasks while a "manager" would be someone that no longer spends a significant fraction of their time doing the same things that the members of their team are doing in order to focus almost exclusively on management tasks. A "team lead" probably doesn't have HR responsibility for the members of the team (so the "team lead" probably doesn't do annual performance reviews, doesn't have responsibility for hiring and firing, etc.) while a "manager" probably does.
As I said initially, though, the exact parameters are likely to vary from one organization to another. There is no guarantee that one organization's "manager" isn't going to be spending a significant amount of time doing the same work their team is responsible for. And it's entirely possible that another organization's "team lead" is going to be responsible for hiring and firing.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
This is probably impossible to answer because it generally depends heavily on the specifics of the organization. What one company calls a "team lead" another company might call a "manager" while other organizations may not make any sort of distinction between the two.
Broadly, though, if an organization makes a distinction between the two roles, it is likely that a "team lead" would be someone that spends part of their time doing the same thing that members of the team are doing and part of their time doing management tasks while a "manager" would be someone that no longer spends a significant fraction of their time doing the same things that the members of their team are doing in order to focus almost exclusively on management tasks. A "team lead" probably doesn't have HR responsibility for the members of the team (so the "team lead" probably doesn't do annual performance reviews, doesn't have responsibility for hiring and firing, etc.) while a "manager" probably does.
As I said initially, though, the exact parameters are likely to vary from one organization to another. There is no guarantee that one organization's "manager" isn't going to be spending a significant amount of time doing the same work their team is responsible for. And it's entirely possible that another organization's "team lead" is going to be responsible for hiring and firing.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
answered Nov 23 '14 at 6:42
Justin Cave
34.8k9112136
34.8k9112136
1
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
2
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
suggest improvements |Â
1
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
2
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
1
1
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
Yes, my understanding is that a Team Lead is still "hands on" to a large degree. Whereas a manager tends to be completely "hands off".
– PowerApp101
Nov 23 '14 at 8:58
2
2
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
That is exactly how it in my current workplace. The Team Leader is sort of an honorific for the person who makes all the technical decisions, while the "real" Manager makes all staffing decisions and budget approvals, plus larger scale statistics.
– Juha Untinen
Nov 24 '14 at 11:23
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Team leader tends to be hands on, supervisory and is generally given a task (whether that's micro or macro) for his team to achieve in x time. They tend to do some of the work themselves, delegate the rest to others, then keep track of the team to ensure the work gets done by reallocating resource as needed.
A manager tends to be more hands off and strategic - they will usually delegate the tasks to teams rather than parcelling out the work individually. They tend to be less involved in the day to day activities of the individuals they are managing, and focus more on the bigger picture
Of course as with anything there's a huge amount of fuzziness here - some companies use one or other term exclusively, and all managers get involved to some extent, while all team leaders have to be strategic to some extent
If you think of team leader as another name for a low end manager (as an attempt to delineate between supervisory and strategic management) that can sometimes help - and allows you to remember that high and low level managers tend to have a lot of crossover in role, scope and behaviour.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Team leader tends to be hands on, supervisory and is generally given a task (whether that's micro or macro) for his team to achieve in x time. They tend to do some of the work themselves, delegate the rest to others, then keep track of the team to ensure the work gets done by reallocating resource as needed.
A manager tends to be more hands off and strategic - they will usually delegate the tasks to teams rather than parcelling out the work individually. They tend to be less involved in the day to day activities of the individuals they are managing, and focus more on the bigger picture
Of course as with anything there's a huge amount of fuzziness here - some companies use one or other term exclusively, and all managers get involved to some extent, while all team leaders have to be strategic to some extent
If you think of team leader as another name for a low end manager (as an attempt to delineate between supervisory and strategic management) that can sometimes help - and allows you to remember that high and low level managers tend to have a lot of crossover in role, scope and behaviour.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Team leader tends to be hands on, supervisory and is generally given a task (whether that's micro or macro) for his team to achieve in x time. They tend to do some of the work themselves, delegate the rest to others, then keep track of the team to ensure the work gets done by reallocating resource as needed.
A manager tends to be more hands off and strategic - they will usually delegate the tasks to teams rather than parcelling out the work individually. They tend to be less involved in the day to day activities of the individuals they are managing, and focus more on the bigger picture
Of course as with anything there's a huge amount of fuzziness here - some companies use one or other term exclusively, and all managers get involved to some extent, while all team leaders have to be strategic to some extent
If you think of team leader as another name for a low end manager (as an attempt to delineate between supervisory and strategic management) that can sometimes help - and allows you to remember that high and low level managers tend to have a lot of crossover in role, scope and behaviour.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
Team leader tends to be hands on, supervisory and is generally given a task (whether that's micro or macro) for his team to achieve in x time. They tend to do some of the work themselves, delegate the rest to others, then keep track of the team to ensure the work gets done by reallocating resource as needed.
A manager tends to be more hands off and strategic - they will usually delegate the tasks to teams rather than parcelling out the work individually. They tend to be less involved in the day to day activities of the individuals they are managing, and focus more on the bigger picture
Of course as with anything there's a huge amount of fuzziness here - some companies use one or other term exclusively, and all managers get involved to some extent, while all team leaders have to be strategic to some extent
If you think of team leader as another name for a low end manager (as an attempt to delineate between supervisory and strategic management) that can sometimes help - and allows you to remember that high and low level managers tend to have a lot of crossover in role, scope and behaviour.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
answered Nov 23 '14 at 12:37
Jon Story
6,49022045
6,49022045
suggest improvements |Â
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Both are titles, so they can mean anything. The same title can even mean different things within the same company.
That aside, usually a team lead is primus inter pares. The team lead is the title of someone leading a team while being part of the team.
A manager just manages something. A manager doesn't need to manage people (e.g. office manager). A manager that leads a team doesn't need to be part of that team. A manager can manage people that are in different teams.
A team lead can almost always be considered to be a manager, but the same is not true the other way around.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Both are titles, so they can mean anything. The same title can even mean different things within the same company.
That aside, usually a team lead is primus inter pares. The team lead is the title of someone leading a team while being part of the team.
A manager just manages something. A manager doesn't need to manage people (e.g. office manager). A manager that leads a team doesn't need to be part of that team. A manager can manage people that are in different teams.
A team lead can almost always be considered to be a manager, but the same is not true the other way around.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
suggest improvements |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Both are titles, so they can mean anything. The same title can even mean different things within the same company.
That aside, usually a team lead is primus inter pares. The team lead is the title of someone leading a team while being part of the team.
A manager just manages something. A manager doesn't need to manage people (e.g. office manager). A manager that leads a team doesn't need to be part of that team. A manager can manage people that are in different teams.
A team lead can almost always be considered to be a manager, but the same is not true the other way around.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
Both are titles, so they can mean anything. The same title can even mean different things within the same company.
That aside, usually a team lead is primus inter pares. The team lead is the title of someone leading a team while being part of the team.
A manager just manages something. A manager doesn't need to manage people (e.g. office manager). A manager that leads a team doesn't need to be part of that team. A manager can manage people that are in different teams.
A team lead can almost always be considered to be a manager, but the same is not true the other way around.
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
answered Nov 23 '14 at 14:32
Peter
10.4k11835
10.4k11835
suggest improvements |Â
suggest improvements |Â
By manager, do you mean project manager, functional manager or just a generic manager in the organization?
– JB King
Nov 23 '14 at 6:45
In my experience, "manager" means someone who handles the interface between the team and the rest of the business at large -- personnel issues, performance evaluations, making sure all the right paperwork gets done, and passing policy/direction-setting directives down from above. The team leader is the person who makes sure that the chunk of work that they're responsible for gets done well and on time -- dividing up the task and making sure appropriate people take appropriate chunks of it, tracking their progress, clearing technical issues out of the way, interfacing to peer teams.
– keshlam
Nov 23 '14 at 23:04