They do not decide the category by themselves. Explain the actual powers and complete managerial or executive role, including any recommendations subject to a defined process.
Describe authority without overstating independence
The relevant analysis requires more than a claim that the applicant can dismiss anyone. Preserve the real constraints and show the decisions the person is responsible for making. Separate three things that are routinely merged: what the agreement forbids, what the organisation's internal policy adds on top of it, and what the applicant actually decides day to day.
Only the third is the subject of the petition, and the first two are context that explains why the third looks the way it does. Set out the decisions the applicant initiates alone, those the applicant recommends within a defined process, and those that belong to someone else entirely; a manager who recommends within a process that generally follows the recommendation is describing real authority, and saying so accurately is stronger than claiming a power the record will contradict. Hypothetical example: a packing-line supervisor lists twenty direct reports and no professional or supervisory subordinates, and the file rests entirely on headcount.
First-line supervision of non-professional staff does not establish managerial capacity on its own, so the case must be rebuilt around an essential function, with the function named and the applicant's discretion over it described, or it does not stand. L-1A also generally requires one continuous year of qualifying full-time employment abroad within the preceding three years, and the maximum period in L-1A is seven years.