The job of an individual contributor (IC)—a person who doesn’t manage others—is usually to craft something that needs to be completed that day or in the next week or two. Their responsibility is to sweat the details, so most individual contributors depend on their managers and executive team to set a destination and lay out a path for them so they can keep their focus on the work. However, if an IC is constantly looking down, their eyes exclusively on their own tight deadlines and the minutiae of their job, they may walk directly into a brick wall. As an IC, you need to occasionally do two
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