One of the most confusing IT roles that gets mixed up quite often is the difference between a manager and a team lead. Yes, both positions involve leadership elements, but at the core, these roles have nothing to do with each other. A team leader focuses on building a high-performing team, while a manager focuses on achieving organizational goals through effective resource management and strategic planning.
So, whether you’re an IT leader wondering what tasks to delegate, a tech lead or manager unsure of your duties, or need to draw a line due to conflicting responsibilities, we’ve got you covered.
We’ll explain the difference between the tech lead and manager dynamic, dive deep into these roles, their differences, and similarities, and uncover why the line is so blurred.
What is a Team Lead?
Team leads are responsible for giving directions and guidance to the tech team. This role is a low-level management position that serves as a connection between the developer team and upper management. In a typical situation, a team lead works closely with the people he or she is leading and is heavily involved in creating the results.
Core Role
A team lead must lead other developers and engineers (junior and mid-level). They assist them in finishing their tasks, provide hands-on leadership, and work closely with their team to produce results.
In other words, they are often senior engineers or developers who lead a team of developers. While the term “team lead” is an industry standard, those in this role might hold titles such as team manager, lead developer, senior developer, tech lead, or even head of development.
Work Style and Duties
Team leads maintain the day-to-day operations and tasks of their team. They are highly involved in their team’s schedule, like bugs, issues, and tests.
They work hand-in-hand with developers and other specialists, often stepping in to code when their expertise is beneficial or if they choose to. The team lead role has evolved beyond software development to include other areas like HR, marketing, and sales, where team leads perform core duties while managing peers.
Place in Hierarchy and Scope
Team leads commonly have a lower position in the organizational hierarchy compared to managers. On the other side, developers report to them. They focus on short-term goals, such as meeting daily, weekly, or sprint tasks, and individual employee growth.
Usually, team leads only have one team.
Key Responsibilities
A team lead’s responsibilities primarily involve supporting and guiding their team. Here are the most important responsibilities that most team leads have to embrace in their career:
| Motivating team members | Advocating for team members with upper management |
| Monitoring task progress and adjusting workload | Providing resources and guidance |
| Ensuring task completion on time | Communicating upper management goals to team members |
| Delegating tasks to each member | Establish continuous mentorship and training for team members |
| Encouraging open communication and positive relationships | Improving the team’s morale, building trust, and suggesting improvements to management |
| Reviewing performance and celebrating successes | Help the team to solve problems and overcome obstacles |
Key Skills
Successful team leads require a distinct set of skills. The following table shows the essential skills a team lead must have to perform their duties:
| Strong technical knowledge | Team-building skills |
| Interpersonal skills and intercultural fluency | Positivity |
| Organizational skills | Motivation skills |
| Advocacy and leadership skills |
What is a Manager?
In the IT context, a manager is a leadership position. Managers provide the business acumen that the developer team needs. They provide oversight, directing teams, departments, or entire companies through strategic resource planning and workflow optimization. They are also in touch with the upper management and the C-suite leadership.
Usually, managers have larger roles in a company in comparison to a team lead.
Core Role
A manager’s core role is to ensure the team’s goals align with the company’s goals.
At first glance, it seems the same as the team lead. But while the team leads are directly responsible for guiding how the developer team works, the manager decides on what they will work on.
In other words, managers decide the tasks that will be done, aligning the upper management’s decisions with the developer team’s workflow.
Work Style and Duties
While team leads and developers take care of programming and the SDLC, managers are involved in meetings and negotiations. A manager might spend their whole day in several meetings, updating themselves and others about all the company’s projects and tasks.
Managers are expected to manage stakeholder expectations, gain C-level approval for products, and negotiate budgets. Everything done is with the company’s well-being in mind.
Place in Hierarchy and Scope
Managers usually stand above the team leads in the hierarchy. While developers report to team leads, the team leads report to the managers.
A manager can have several team leads reporting to them, managing multiple teams and departments at once.
All these reports are necessary, as managers must keep track of the team’s progress and show results to the upper management and C-suite leaders.
Key Responsibilities
An IT manager must be a competent leader who can effectively communicate, strategize, and manage teams, projects, and stakeholders within a dynamic and ever-evolving technological landscape.
| Understanding the company’s long-term goals and initiatives. | Organizing the overall company workflow |
| Setting goals and tasks with supervisors | Supporting team leaders, tech leaders, and supervisors |
| Hiring, firing, and promotion decisions | Managing budgets and expenses |
| Getting buy-in from upper management | Representing upper management to team leaders |
| Coaching team leaders | Supporting team leaders when they’re having difficulties |
| Compromising with employees and upper management to find solutions that meet both needs | Establishing project deadlines |
| Allocating resources | Managing dissatisfied customers and relevant stakeholders |
Key Skill Sets
Being an effective manager in the IT industry requires a robust combination of hard and soft skills. Here’s a breakdown sheet, it lists the key skills demanded for such role:
| Budgeting | Strategic planning |
| Problem-solving skills | Goal Setting |
| Delegation | Communication |
| Big-picture mindset | Cost analysis |
| Financial Forecasting | Project Management |
| Time management | Leadership |
Team Lead vs Manager: the differences between
Now that we have a clear picture of the tech lead vs manager dynamics, we can discuss their differences further. Tech leads are deeply involved in the day-to-day operations, while the manager is always busy with meetings with stakeholders. Tech leads are much more involved with coding and programming, while managers plan the next tasks and steps towards the company’s goals.
Key Differences at a Glance
Team Lead:
- Focus: Technical direction and hands-on collaboration
- Scope: Day-to-day operations and team performance
- Involvement: Works closely with individual team members
- Responsibilities: Mentoring, task coordination, and skill development
- Position: Often remains an individual contributor while leading peers
Manager:
- Focus: Strategic planning and organizational alignment
- Scope: Broader organizational goals and resource management
- Involvement: Generally distanced from the team and not involved in day-to-day operations
- Responsibilities: Budget oversight, performance reviews, and strategic decision-making
- Position: Dedicated management role with formal authority
| Team Lead / Tech Lead | Manager / PO-PM | |
| Role | Daily Tech Operations | Achieving Goals in the Long Run |
| Scope | Their team | Their teams and departments |
| Duties | Working with devs and code, task completion, operational routine, execution, and motivation | Business meetings, project management, budgeting, bridging stakeholders and developers |
| Goals and Perspectives | Positive team relationships, team progress, and individual employee training | Company operations, department performance, and business/financial objectives |
| Work Style | Hand in hand with developers, can code | Meetings, catching up on projects |
| Hierarchy | Above Dev Team | Above Team Lead |
| Relationships | Mainly with the Dev Team | Mainly with stakeholders, executives, and other managers |
| Involvement | Committing Tasks | Project Management |
Why These Roles Overlap
The distinction between team leads and managers has become blurred due to the rapid expansion of IT teams. It often requires team leads to juggle manager-level tasks (and vice versa). However, understanding their unique roles is important for the company’s success.
Blurring and overlapping of roles within companies are increasingly common. The reasons: evolving business environments, organizational structures, company culture, and technological advancements.
Businesses today operate in a fast-paced, constantly evolving landscape. New technologies, market trends, and customer needs force companies to be highly adaptable. Rigid job descriptions hinder this adaptability.
Agile significantly contributes to role blurring as well. Agile teams are often cross-functional and self-organizing, requiring members to take on many duties beyond their strict job description. Collaboration and delivering value are more important than strict adherence to predefined roles.
For many years, companies have been moving away from traditional, hierarchical structures towards flatter, more networked models. Layers of management are shattering, empowering employees with greater autonomy, often leading to individuals taking on responsibilities that might overlap.
For example, roles as backend developer and backend engineer have many differences, but in practice, it’s expected that both of them perform in each other’s roles. The same goes for the team lead vs manager controversy.
Conclusion
A team lead helps the team with its daily tasks. A manager decides which tasks will be done, according to the stakeholders’ needs and the company’s strategy. A team lead often writes code, while a manager might not know how to code at all.
These roles often overlap because many responsibilities are shared. For example, a senior engineer team lead might complete some managerial tasks to be promoted to staff engineer. Meanwhile, a manager might learn how to code to understand their team’s needs and effectively communicate them to the upper management.
Companies need professionals not only willing to understand their job description, but also able to do more.
