The following profile is provided to assist programme directors and their clients in advising participants in regard to programmes of an appropriate level.

Team leaders are best perceived as being part of a team; first and foremost they are practitioners or operators working alongside other team members. Being leaders of teams augments this role, but does not significantly affect their general responsibility to engage in the same or complementary job tasks as the other team members.

Given that teams are likely to contain relatively small numbers of people (probably in the range 6 – 12), the team leader’s span of control is quite small.

The team leader role is distinct from that of the first line manager in its tendency to focus on the shorter term, on the day-to-day performance of the team and its members. This means a responsibility for allocating tasks between team members, for ensuring that individuals are supported in the performance of their job role, and that output conforms to the requirements of the organisation and its customers. Communication between the team and its managers is a significant part of the team leader role.

Team leaders can be expected to be aware of the need to satisfy customer or supplier requirements as agreed by the organisation, and to be alert to these as they are notified to the team. Team leaders are expected to encourage team members to respond appropriately to these requirements within the parameters laid down by the organisation. They will have no power to amend standard practices but may have to decide on more complex decisions within tightly defined boundaries (e.g. whether a product meets the quality standards or a customer fits into a particular pricing category). This decision-making primarily reflects the team leader’s perceived superior technical competence or experience rather than being a managerial quality.