Tactical Leadership vs. Organizational Leadership

¶ … leadership, in particular the differences between tactical leadership and organizational leadership. Tactical leadership is focused on tactics and tends to be small scale in nature, flexible and decentralized. Organizational leadership tends to be more centralized, with a focus on resource deployment, logistics and support. Where tactical leadership is about what to do, organizational leaders ask how can we do something.

Tactical Leadership

The concept of tactical leadership reflects a concern for the immediate time frame. Tactics are developed primarily to serve the current interests, and tactical leaders seek to find ways to resolve problems. This leadership style is not particularly well-suited for long-range planning but can be useful in combat and other mission settings. One of the key traits and benefits of tactical leadership is that it is flexible. Tactical leaders are capable of constant adjustment to tactics on the fly, which is a valuable skill in a rapidly-changing environmental dynamic.

Because of its nature, the tactical leadership style is highly transactional in nature. Tactical leadership know how to map out a series of transactions that will allow them to meet their objectives. There may not be much sense of a bigger vision but the individual mission is accomplished well. In general, the tactical leader is oriented towards execution, and operational excellence as primary traits (Martin, 2011).

Tactical leadership excels in the nuts and bolts of a task. He or she can outline all of the different steps needed to complete a task, isolate the right individuals for each one, what resources are needed and what the timeframe will be. Therefore the tactical leader excels at planning and execution of an given mission, and this is the role that they play most often. The tactical leader is often not even interested in the context of what they are doing -- he or she just wants to do it.

Organizational Leadership

The organizational leadership style shares some similarities with tactical leadership. Organizational leaders place emphasis on the organizational side of the role. When facing a challenge, the organizational leader will focus on the roles, the resources and the personnel required for the job. Acquiring these assets is an important part of the organizer's roles. This type of leader again does not have a strong vision but instead excels at finding ways to acquire the needed resources, so that when things are needed they are available. This is a high-end skill especially in combat or in zones were logistics are a key issue.

The organizational leader is capable of leading complex organizations, like brigades, divisions and corps. This stands in contrast to the tactical leader, who usually heads a small group. The organizational leader may not be a visionary, but thinks in the big picture more. There is an emphasis on "the concerns of larger organizations and their staffs and those of their subordinate leaders, units and individuals" (Danikowski, 2000). The ability to organize large groups of resources is something that is necessary for this type of leadership. These leaders will often have higher ranks than the tactical leaders, though the latter can also be effective at the higher levels as well.

Differences and Similarities.

There are a number of similarities between tactical and organizational leaders. Both types of leaders can be effective at different levels of the military. Tactics can be both small scale for a single small mission or large-scale for a major batter that defines the conflict. Organizational leaders are also able to synthesize large amounts of information and derive from that a viable strategy to executing on an objective. So in that sense, both of these leadership styles are similar.

In addition, both are transactional in nature. Where the organizational leader focuses on resources and the tactical leader focuses on what to do with those resources, both of these skills require the ability to distill complex tasks into their constituent parts and then determine the individual actions that are needed to bring about the objective. They both think in similar was, albeit focused on different resources. Neither is necessarily a strong transformational leader because neither is focused on variables like morale and emotional context. In that sense, they were good for the modern army where tactics and organization are critical to both success and survival.

However, there are some differences between the two. Where tactical leaders are focused on what needs to be done, organizational leaders are focused on the question of how can we do it. The tactical leader will examine a task and determine how to do that task, often without considering at first the constraints. It is the job of the organizational leader to understand what resources are needed, what constraints their might be, and how to utilize logistics to ensure that the team is able to carry about the mission as successfully as possible.

Both leaders need to be able to think complex concepts through, as either one might be asked to manage a large, complex problem and devise a solution. The key difference is in how these two types of leaders approach the problem -- either from resource perspective or from a tactical perspective. Both can be highly effective in the right context.