In professional settings, the priority is to do the right things over doing them right. This attitude can lead to employee failure. If you do the right thing but do it wrong, you may also fail. The best way to ensure success is to be attentive to both ends. This approach involves both strategic and tactical thinking. The strategic thinker is more concerned with doing the right thing and sees situations more from a leadership perspective.
Being a strategic thinker is a problem. They tend to only do the right things and often fail to act. A company may be asked to design a new building. A strategic thinker might approach the task as an executive. Although they have the right resources to use for the job, they might not put them to work in a way that ensures the job is completed on time and within budget. Strategy thinkers should always be able to see the urgency of the situation. Inaction can cause loss of time and money for companies. Tactical thinkers believe that the best way to approach problems is to do them right and see them from a managerial perspective. This is because they are more focused on the task at the hand and less on the desired outcome. A strategic thinker might suggest cold-calling to find new clients for a consulting firm. This may bring in some clients in the future but it isn’t always the best way to go. In most cases, this is not an effective or efficient action, and could even be considered unnecessary. To be successful in the professional world, you need both tactical and strategic thinking. The problem with strategic thinkers is that they tend to be good at what they do, but are not able to implement the plan. On the other hand, tactical thinkers do the right things and take the necessary actions. However, sometimes they fail to see how the whole picture. Both thinking styles can be combined to make an employee and company successful.
