Muscat Entrepreneurs

What makes leading with a strategy different than leading with tactics? Strategy creation requires taking a step back, identifying your main objective (goal), creating a strategy that includes multiple smaller tactics, and then executing on those tactics. Consider the following business examples that may help illustrate the difference:

For the first example, let's say you'd like to develop new clients. A tactic could include creating a cold calling list and starting your calls. But a larger strategy that will help make this tactic more effective consists of considering your reputation, how you're perceived by people external to your company and curating an approach that reaches multiple target audiences with the same narrative.

Start with what sets your business apart, develop standard language around it, and then experiment with prospective clients to see what best resonates. This step back gives you the perspective to refine your tactics. Your overarching strategy should help you consider who should make it on the cold-calling list and what you should say to them.

In this next example, let's say you run a company that has recently gotten internal feedback that your employees do not feel engaged. You are not alone—60% of employees in the nation report feeling disengaged at work, with 19% reporting downright misery according to a recent report. To tackle this obstacle, you could start with tactics.

To address this problem, you might consider some common employee engagement tactics. You may even hire an external team to help you enact these tactics—or charge your internal communications and human resources teams to oversee this change. They host employee engagement activities, and you even work to integrate more positive feedback and advancement opportunities.