When I was starting out as a young and relatively low-in-the-chain-of-command employee, I was highly focused on the task at hand. I was clear about my responsibilities and how to be successful and I didn’t worry about a great deal more than that. If someone back then had asked me how the company I was working for was doing financially or what its main threats were in the external environment, I don’t think I could have answered. More importantly, I would have thought that those were strange questions for someone at my level to be concerned about.

Things change.