You can get close enough, and if you have a high enough stealth skill you can even run in circles around them. However, the characters drop out of stealth mode as soon as you give the attack order, so get close up first, and then attack. Not the other way around.
Oh, and you do know how the stealth mode works, don't you?
But at any rate, the best way to use sneak attack tactics is not from a stealth approach. Since incapacitated enemies take damage from sneak attacks too, you are better off using stasis/critical hit/fear than stealth.