WHAT DOES A TEAM LEAD DO?

Published: Dec 18, 2025 - The Team Lead oversees a team of specialists to ensure the timely execution of projects while upholding quality and performance standards. This position is responsible for coordinating cross-functional collaboration, providing strategic guidance, and driving continuous improvement in workflows and outcomes. The individual also mentors team members, manages performance reviews, and fosters a positive and productive team environment aligned with organizational goals.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Team Lead

1. Team Lead Responsibilities

  • Leadership Management: Manage employees to include scheduling, providing technical assistance, and employee development, which includes hiring, communicating company policies, coaching and counseling, administering performance appraisals, and enforcing company policies through appropriate disciplinary measures
  • Team Oversight: Manage several individual contributors who may be in geographically separated locations.
  • Department Leadership: Manage broader areas of the department, including leading several teams, contributing toward strategic operations/logistics, or inventory plans and programs.
  • Stakeholder Collaboration: Collaborate with key stakeholders (Distribution and Field Operations, Sales, Marketing, etc.) in optimizing the supply chain.
  • Delivery Assurance: Ensure on-time, complete, and accurate delivery of products to customers
  • Performance Achievement: Ensure individuals and the team as a whole consistently achieve or exceed all performance metrics
  • Safety Management: Work to achieve an environment that is free of safety hazards and improper ergonomic conditions while driving employee commitment to use safe work practices every day.
  • Policy Compliance: Ensure compliance with established regulatory and quality, legal, corporate, and human resources policies and procedures.
  • Training Support: Provide on-the-job training and guidance to team members and ensure proper tracking of competencies
  • Training Standards: Adhere to standards of training and provide documentation, continuous performance enhancement, and reliability.
  • Talent Acquisition: Recruit temporary and permanent talent to the team
  • Hiring Compliance: Ensure new hires meet all criteria for employment.
  • Operational Excellence: Achieve operational excellence via team-based and product-focused orientation, capacity planning, continuous improvement, safety awareness, and cost reduction to be implemented so timely, accurate deliveries are produced.
  • Employee Engagement: Achieve employee engagement by being responsible and accountable for actions, promoting an environment that fosters personal growth and development.
  • Quality Monitoring: Direct reports to monitor the quality of goods by reviewing costs, schedules, and timeliness of delivery, and conformance to specifications.
  • Customer Focus: Focus on customer satisfaction through teamwork and empowerment, solve problems through a consultative approach, operate with honesty and integrity, and provide a highly responsive and unsurpassed level of customer service.
  • Record Management: Accountable for all record-keeping and in accordance with Stryker specifications.
  • Integrity Service: Perform with honesty and integrity, instituting a highly responsive and unsurpassed level of customer service.
  • Culture Development: Actively participate in the ongoing development of a corporate culture that strives to achieve the highest ethical standards
  • Ethical Conduct: Conduct all business affairs ethically and lawfully and ensure open, honest communication without fear of retaliation.

2. Team Lead Accountabilities

  • Field Count Support: Aid the manager in the development and execution of the Field Count schedule with the sales team and necessary internal departments.
  • Audit Compliance: Work with the internal team to ensure all financial audit requirements are met throughout all phases of the Field Counts as well as the Self-Counts.
  • Data Coordination: Work across the coordinator team to ensure the required data needed for counts is gathered and distributed prior to the Field Count Team arriving, which includes Set Listings, Biologics Listings, and hospital locations.
  • Accountability Review: Review updated data with the appropriate sales team during and after Field Counts (physical Field Counts and Self-Counts) to drive accountability with that team.
  • Reconciliation Leadership: Lead efforts internally and externally after counts to ensure timely reconciliation.
  • Training Development: Lead all employee training and count tool development

3. Team Lead Details and Accountabilities

  • Operations Management: Manage day-to-day operations, including CS KPIs, backlogs, and process escalation.
  • Performance Analysis: Summarize, collect, and analyze call center trends and agents' performance data for regular performance reports.
  • BPO Coordination: Coordinate with BPO closely to update improvements, changes in the daily huddle
  • QA Collaboration: Coordinate with the QA team to develop improvement plans for BPO
  • BPO Engagement: Engage BPO staff with motivation activities, listening, and support in real time
  • Project Support: Support/Involve to run the CS project
  • System Testing: UAT for all system impacts to CS
  • Agent Hiring: Interview/Hire an agent under TL BPO

4. Team Lead Additional Details

  • Staff Coaching: Through a presence in the workplace, coach and mentor staff to ensure products are manufactured and documentation is completed in accordance with GMP, Standard Operating Procedures, and other regulatory agency requirements.
  • Investigation Completion: Timely completion of relevant deviation and complaint investigations to identify the true root cause
  • Action Closure: Timely closure of corrective/preventative actions for deviations, complaints, and GMP audits that are assigned to them with a focus on improved processes, documentation, documentation completion, and training.
  • Audit Support: Completion of surveillance audits and support for Self-Inspection audits in the areas.
  • Cleanliness Maintenance: Maintain a high level of tidiness and cleanliness at all times, including personal, personnel, work area, and department.
  • License Maintenance: Maintain a Bronze badge license, hold or work towards a Silver License badge for aseptic filling.

5. Team Lead Essential Functions

  • Employment Management: Manage the employment status of call center associates and participate in the transfer, promotions, or regularization of call center associates before any such employee movement is made
  • Judgment Execution: Exercises independent judgment and discretion in the performance of the said main function as a means to implement management policies
  • Authority Oversight: Exercises authority to manage the employment status of a group of employees (firing, promotion, regularization, etc.), including identifying and addressing misconduct, policy, and process violations of call center associates
  • Policy Adherence: Stay current on internal work processes, management policies, and procedures, and ensure implementation of the same
  • Policy Implementation: Implement management policies
  • Program Support: Support and manage the program together with other Team Leaders and Managers
  • Talent Development: Provide input into selecting, training, developing, and completing performance appraisal of work groups in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable legal requirements
  • Performance Management: Manage team members on their performance regularly, and write and deliver performance appraisals.

6. Team Lead Role Purpose

  • Safety Culture: Driving a safety culture and ensuring all colleagues on site have a safe working environment
  • Associate Motivation: Motivating associates to deliver results and contribute to business success
  • Customer Delivery: Delivering for the customer on time, in full, and to the required quality for business
  • Policy Compliance: Ensuring all policies and procedures are upheld in line with business expectations
  • Site Initiatives: Contributing to business commitments through actively supporting environmental and well-being initiatives on-site
  • Incident Investigation: Involving in accident and incident investigation and corrective action implementation

7. Team Lead General Responsibilities

  • Resource Coordination: Be responsible for coordinating manpower and equipment to ensure delivery of materials in accordance with production/shipping schedules.
  • Safety Compliance: Ensure all safety and ergonomic standards are followed, including job rotation.
  • Team Training: Provide training and cross-training of Team Members
  • Improvement Projects: Initiates, coordinates, and participates in safety, quality, productivity, and cost improvement projects, facilitating or supporting facilitation of small group activities.
  • Leader Communication: Maintain frequent daily communication with the Group Leader.
  • Continuous Improvement: Support ongoing continuous improvement (kaizen) projects, increase efficiency while reducing manufacturing cost projects.
  • Operational Support: Support operational goals and standards are met and followed, effectively using feedback loops and systems, and the escalation process.
  • Issue Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot daily quality, safety, and productivity issues, being proactive in predicting abnormalities and finding innovative solutions to correct them

8. Team Lead Key Accountabilities

  • Performance Coaching: Performance management provides coaching, development opportunities, and gives appropriate recognition to drive a high-performance culture
  • Team Support: Support the team and other teams in the centre.
  • Effective Communication: Lead by example by communicating effectively with teams and individuals by being able to deliver and contextualise key messages (good news/bad news/change communications) in a way that makes information impactful and relevant.
  • KPI Achievement: Achieve KPI’s to meet SLA’s by creating robust plans to drive results and remove any barriers to providing excellent customer care
  • Resource Management: Resource management, being creative, and fostering innovation at all times to provide suitably skilled and trained people to meet the volatile demands of all work streams
  • Positive Environment: Create a positive working environment by listening and engaging the team to contribute and participate in driving local improvement activities
  • Centre Efficiency: Encourage efficiency, cost saving, wellbeing, and safety in the Centre
  • Capability Development: Develop the overall capability of the team by supporting individual needs with relevant PDPS and creating career opportunities
  • Active Collaboration: Collaboration by actively building relationships both internally and externally to deliver the best possible results and sharing best practices.
  • Service Delivery: Team performance and the delivery of high-volume blended services to meet all KPI measures, whilst remaining compliant with the policies and regulatory obligations
  • Team Communication: Ensure team receives all relevant communications and updates, train and develop Advisors to broaden skillset, ensure knowledge management is completed by Advisors, and coach and performance manage
  • Escalation Ownership: Act as the first point for any customer escalations and fully owns these, following processes to meet customer needs
  • Customer Ownership: Drive ownership and responsibility of customer calls, ensuring every customer contact is seen as an opportunity to positively impress
  • Product Knowledge: Knowledge and understanding of the products, Services, processes, and systems within own product areas.
  • Safety Practices: Health and Safety/Safe working practices and effectively managing/coaching their team to continuously improve Employee Engagement
  • Experience Leadership: Lead by example, being passionate about creating the best experience for all callers

9. Team Lead Details and Accountabilities

  • Customer Standards: Set high standards and motivate the team to create a great customer experience
  • Sales Leadership: Be responsible for exceeding sales goals, building store traffic, converting customers, interacting with the product, and promoting campaigns and contests to drive brand awareness and lasting customer relationships
  • Brand Advocacy: Act as a Brand Ambassador, consistently modeling and upholding the Vera Bradley Core Values
  • Visual Merchandising: Assist the leadership team with planning, implementing, and maintaining the visual merchandising brand standards
  • Store Operations: Assist with store operational duties, including inventory, ordering, training, emailing and calling customers, and opening and closing
  • Team Liaison: Act as a liaison between store associates and store leadership to create a fun and collaborative work environment
  • Loss Prevention: Maintain an awareness of loss prevention by supporting a culture of honesty and connecting the links between creating a great customer experience, store associate engagement, and shrinkage

10. Team Lead Roles and Details

  • Department Functioning: Be responsible for the optimal functioning of the department.
  • Productivity Improvement: Improve productivity and efficiency.
  • Work Planning: Daily work planning and follow-up of the employees, take care of the internal training and coaching of new team members.
  • Process Improvement: Detect improvement potential in the work processes of the team
  • Team Motivation: Motivate and coach the team members
  • Error Resolution: Prepare to solve mistakes and assist the team members with advice.
  • HR Support: Help implement the human resources policy.
  • Continuous Improvement: Make a proactive contribution to the continuous improvement methodology

11. Team Lead Responsibilities and Key Tasks

  • Site Management: Proactively manage the site and all employees and ensure the site operates in a fully compliant manner.
  • Safety Assurance: Always ensure the health and safety of colleagues and all site users.
  • Public Accountability: Accountable and responsible for the site, the employees, and all members of the public entering the site.
  • Public Assistance: Assist members of the public in a polite manner.
  • Recycling Promotion: Promote a new culture of recycling and diversion of waste to landfills.
  • Compliance Reporting: Report any non-compliances and/or discrepancies on site to the site manager.
  • Administrative Accuracy: Ensure all administrative reporting is completed in an accurate and timely manner.
  • Site Cleanliness: Ensure the site and access roads are always kept clean and tidy.

12. Team Lead Duties and Roles

  • Equipment Scalability: Assist in scalability and troubleshooting for equipment and systems
  • Technical Support: Assist with resolving technical issues, as well as the maintenance of production equipment
  • Process Review: Assist in reviewing existing operational and process discrepancies and guide process improvement
  • Issue Collaboration: Collaborates and pulls in support staff after an appropriate investigation of issues
  • Labor Execution: Execute labor plan in partnership with Production Team Leader and Manufacturing Process Lead
  • Process Improvement: Review current processes and propose future improvements
  • Planning Execution: Review and execute production planning by the Production Team Leader
  • Employee Coaching: Assist with coaching and feedback for production employees
  • Resource Identification: Identify and communicate potential resource needs for the area
  • Standard Work: Contribute to Leader Standard Work and audit requirements, including Quality and 6S
  • Project Partnership: Partner with PTL and other Business Units for project execution and plant process improvement
  • Development Support: Assist with planning and executing employee development activities by the Production Team Leader
  • Engagement Activities: Execute employee engagement activities in the assigned area by the Production Team Leader
  • Safety Culture: Drive a culture of safety, continuous improvement, positivity, and collaboration within the team.
  • Problem Exposure: Expose and document problems through the MDI (Managing for Daily Improvement) process
  • Shift Communication: Be responsible for shift handoff and communication with peers
  • Production Operation: Build and/or operate in production to meet production pace requirements

13. Team Lead Duties

  • KPI Delivery: Deliver against Project and Process KPI’s
  • Improvement Culture: Help drive a culture of continuous improvement by coaching, training, and guiding teams in Lean principles, delivering against Arnotts Performance Excellence (apex) Program
  • Process Gap Analysis: Identify process gaps and work cross-functionally to determine appropriate solutions
  • Project Leadership: Identify and lead a range of Improvement Projects across the Business
  • Training Coordination: Identify skills gaps and coordinate training requirements
  • Supplier Liaison: Liaise with internal and external suppliers on equipment parameters and specifications
  • Root Cause Analysis: Advanced problem solving using Lean Principles to facilitate teams using root cause analysis.

14. Team Lead Details

  • Customer Accountability: Holds ATLs, supervisors, and Team Members accountable for delivering outstanding customer service.
  • Expectation Setting: Defines and develops clear expectations to achieve the highest standards of retail execution.
  • Delegation Empowerment: Effectively delegates to and empowers ATLs and Team Members.
  • Target Management: Accountable for monitoring and achieving sales, margin, expense, and labor targets.
  • Merchandising Control: Maintains proper product assortment, merchandising, and inventory control.
  • Cross Merchandising: Ensures products are cross-merchandised in accordance with regional and global guidelines.
  • Category Compliance: Ensures adherence to category management schedule and planograms.
  • Nutritional Accuracy: Ensures nutritional aspects are displayed correctly.
  • Leadership Collaboration: Establishes and maintains collaborative and productive working relationships with departmental and store leadership.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Maintains comprehensive knowledge of and ensures compliance with relevant regulatory rules and standards.
  • Retail Standards: Sets and achieves the highest standards of retail execution.
  • Team Environment: Fosters and encourages a positive environment of outstanding teamwork, mutual respect, and exceptional morale.
  • Customer Awareness: Maintains awareness of customer flows and needs and directs Team Members to satisfy and delight customers, responds promptly to customer needs and questions.
  • Talent Development: Selects, trains, develops, mentors, motivates, and counsels Team Members in a manner that sustains a high-performance team and minimizes turnover.
  • Safety Communication: Communicates and maintains Team Member safety and security standards.
  • Performance Evaluation: Provides timely, thorough, and thoughtful performance evaluations.
  • Vision Communication: Consistently communicates and models WFM vision and goals.

15. Team Lead Responsibilities

  • Business Planning: Participate in annual business planning and budget development, with ongoing oversight of implementation.
  • Functional Alignment: Collaborate with other functional management to ensure alignment of business planning and operations, coordinating across and developing synergies with therapeutic areas, phases of development, and geographies.
  • Metrics Management: Ensure appropriate, necessary, and effective metrics development, review/analysis, reporting, and issue resolution to drive business and operational changes.
  • Partner Communication: Communicate with business partners on the progress of deliverables and risk mitigation strategies developed and implemented.
  • Campaign Promotion: Inspire customers by promoting campaigns, offers, and activities, and by being commercially aware within H&M, other retailers, and the current environment.
  • Customer Experience: Deliver a great customer experience that contributes to the sales and profit goals in the store.
  • Team Support: Support the store management team to create a great team by leading the way and leading by example, and also ensuring that all colleagues deliver great garment care and store operations.
  • Safety Routines: Follow health and safety routines to promote the safety and well-being of all colleagues and customers.

16. Team Lead Functions

  • Process Analysis: Analyzing problems in current processes and solving these in collaboration with other team members, specifically with software developers, who apply changes to the ERP system (the operative software is implemented and maintained by the development team).
  • Problem Support: Supporting teams in problem-solving when their team members can't find a solution by themselves.
  • Root Cause Resolution: Identifying the root cause of problems and solving these, together with the different teams involved (e.g, the software development team and operational teams).
  • Organizational Support: Supporting organizational tasks, such as defining responsibilities and identifying the right people to take them over.
  • Employee Training: Training a new Customer Relationship Officer.
  • Manager Reporting: Reporting to the Store Manager.