Leadership in Technical Services
Leadership in technical services consulting organizations presents unique challenges due to the complex interplay between technical expertise and business management demands. Leaders must balance maintaining their technical credibility while developing the broader business and people management skills necessary to guide their organizations.
The fast-paced and continuously evolving nature of technical services adds another layer of complexity to leadership. Leaders must stay current with technological advancements while simultaneously managing client expectations, market pressures, and team dynamics. They need to make quick decisions about resource allocation, project priorities, and strategic investments in new technologies or skills development, all while ensuring their teams remain motivated and engaged. This requires a delicate balance between short-term delivery demands and long-term capability building, often with limited resources and tight margins.
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ARTICLE: A Systems Approach to (Re)Building a Business Unit
This article introduces a set of learning units designed for leaders inheriting teams in financial, cultural, or operational crisis. Based on real-world interviews with veteran business unit managers from engineering firms, this series distills their insights into a clear four-stage process: diagnose, plan, implement, and monitor. The foundation contains a set of five core team KPI sets: client relationships, personnel, project finances, quality of deliverables, and project scheduling used throughout to evaluate, improve, and track team performance.
VIDEO: 30-Day Systems Approach Diagnostic
This series is what we call a hub-series, which means it leads to other Twennie series depending on the unique challenges you’re facing in your operations. The diagnostic tools shown in this video are designed to not only help you rescue struggling business units, but to also help you plan your learning and development in a logical sequence, helping you learn, then fix what you must in the short term to develop more revenue. This video is the first in the series, A Systems Approach to (Re)Building a Business Unit.
VIDEO: Leading Change in a Technical Services Team
Change is difficult for people because of one nagging fear - the fear of failure. Many feel as if they've just settled into a routine in which they can be successful, and change makes things uncertain again. They might be asked to adapt again, and they're not always confident in their ability to do it. This video explains why change is so difficult and how leaders can set the tone for change in a way that inspires and strengthens people, rather than building on their anxiety.
PROMPT SET: Diagnosing Operational Problems Through Team Anecdotes
This prompt set is a quick, anecdotal data-gathering tool that feeds Twennie’s Systems Approach diagnostic. It’s not a test and not a performance review, so there are no wrong answers. We’re looking for short, concrete stories from the last few months that show how things actually work: what was asked, what you delivered, how the client or team responded, and what changed next. Each prompt targets one diagnostic question from five pillars: client relationships, personnel, financials, quality, or schedule.
to help a team leader run a fast, practical diagnostic using real stories from recent work