Understanding, clarifying, and assigning strategic versus tactical decision making is key in business.
There appears to be an imbalance in strategic vs. tactical thinkers: around 90% of leaders or managers are tactical and only about 10% are strategic. I believe that we can teach and be taught the difference and how to think both ways.
Defining the Difference
Tactical leaders and managers are like firefighters. They seem to thrive on running around fighting the little fires that crop up in their businesses or divisions. Tactical decisions are short term, narrowly focused, and should be — but are most often not — made with the long term view in mind.
Strategic leaders and managers are fire preventors. They look to the future and see the implications of moves and minimizing the risk of a fire starting. If or when a fire does start, they fight it based on the long view of the company. Strategic decisions are based on the "higher level," "big picture," and "long term" views and objectives.
Where Strategy and Tactics Meet
Strategists need to get the long view right and share that view with the tacticians. And vice-versa.
When the tacticians know what the long term view is, they are better able to choose which fires to fight, how to fight them, and help prevent fires in the future.
When the strategists listen to and understand the tacticians, they get a "boots on the ground" view of areas of possible flare-ups and can make decisions to prevent them.
Where the strategy and tactics meet: improving the organization's capacity to survive and thrive.
How a Business Plan Helps
I worked with a business owner who wasn't really trying to micro-manage, but his mind kept going to all of the things he felt he needed to attend to. It was a maze of thoughts and ideas, traps and blocks, creativity, and opportunities. What kept him from moving forward was that he was almost always in firefighting mode.
A big part of why he was in firefighting mode was that all of these paths represented another option, another choice he had to make. And as I have said before, too many options create indecision.
The center of the business plan is the big picture focus that management needs to focus on. The higher up the manager is in the food chain, the narrower that box gets. When the decision-making box is wider, the entire organization moves randomly — swinging from fire to fire.
A business plan helps you define that center. It helps you know which fires to fight and which to let burn out. It aligns your tactical decisions with your strategic direction.