This is a big problem in startups. Developers with very little to nothing of not only management experience but even development experience become VPofE/Directors/CTOs and wreak psychological havoc on people they are supposed to manage. Sometimes they do it on purpose because of insecurities or many times just unintentionally.

Usually the bigger problem there isn't as much the individuals, but why the startup needed that role to begin with.

A lot of times early companies will go through the motions of, "needing" a VP of Engineering, or CTO, or whatever. In reality their process does not need that, and those roles are either meaningless titles at best or cause unnecessary process to crop up and hinder productivity.

This perfectly articulates something I tried to get across to upper management last time we hired a manager for our team. It seems so obvious and reasonable, but they wouldn't hear it. So, we ended up hiring someone who not only had no real management experience but who also didn't particularly _want_ to be a manager, instead preferring to write code.

This created conflict exactly as you'd expect and team morale fell apart, projects slipped, etc. Of course, management takes no responsibility for this, instead diffusing blame to employees via suck-it-up type platitudes (couched in "nicer" language but with that essential meaning).

How about team lead?

Team lead is acceptable as it's more of a servant leadership relationship, and under the right circumstances, a team lead should be able to grow into a full blown manager role.

I am a big fan of 'trying out' future managers in the team leader role.