The representative of the team for which they are a member of.
Comments: A “Team Lead” may have some supervisory responsibilities, but largely is “just one of the team” meaning they roll their sleeves up and work just like everyone else.
Generally we encourage companies using Team Systems to allow team members to “elect” their own Leads and encourage them to rotate who fills the Lead role (as well as other roles), on a periodic basis.
Team Leads can be seen as the liaison between supervision, management, other departments, etc. This structure tends to streamline communications as the Lead disseminates needed information to the rest of the team.