[ddddysgath]

The reality here is that you are a junior manager who has come up through software engineering. I'm hearing some patterns that I have to work with my staff on and they are pretty typical for this background. First and most importantly, despite what you might think, nobody is telling you what to do anymore. You need to have your own point of view and agenda and work constructively with others to accomplish that goal. The biggest problem I see with junior managers is to think that somebody is going to tell them what to do and how to have impact. That's gone now. I have managers because I do _not_ want to have to tell them what to do every day. Every minute I have to spend telling a manager to do their job is a minute I'm not spending on strategy or trying to discover the big picture. This is critical because it sounds like you spend a lot of time arguing with the people you think you have to please. You don't. Do your job. Trying to convince somebody to tell you how to do your job the way you want to do your job is never going to work. They will always want you to do your job their way, not yours. Next, it looks like your influence and communication skills are a bit lacking. Criticizing somebody's ideas to their face or in public is almost never going to work and just set them against you. Most real work at the leadership level is done in "private." That's where ideas can be exchanged and worked through without anybody feeling threatened or defensive. You almost certaintly have to stop the negativity. I know bad things are just about to happen and you can see that really, really clearly, but your reaction can't be "no, this is terrible", it needs to be: "yes, and..." that's the way you win support and not set people against you. Third, things aren't "rational" anymore. The trade-offs and uncertainty are getting larger and larger with every step you take, and rational decision making processes are less and less effective. A pretty typical decision for a leadership team to make is: should we continue serving our existing customers or should we move up-market? You might have some really strong opinions on this, but you are lacking most of the relevent information--what does the board say? what is the burn rate, the TAM at the current market? can you get a cash injection with a strategy change, but not one without? What about the sales team? Is it strong enough to pivot? Has any of them sold into Fortune 500 companies before? Executives at Fortune 500 companies? Does your pricing strategy scale? What services do you need to develop? This is an immensely difficult decision and even if you have a very clear perspective on your domain, you are still likely missing the big picture. Next, nearly everything you see from other people at your level and above is actually somebody trying to do organizational politics. This isn't bad, this is how organizations function. I see you criticize brainstorming in a sub-threads. Brainstorming usually isn't about finding the best idea--it's about getting organizational alignment around an idea. That's the important thing. Strong alignment around a weak idea is better than weak alignment around a strong idea, since everyone will end up doing their own thing and the idea will fail. Lastly, I would encourage you to do some self-reflection, so you are aware of your own personality and biases. This is really the only way your career can grow from here on out, since for most of us, we are our own biggest blockers to success. I usually recommend learning and studying the enneagram as a way to notice your patterns and how they tend to undermine your relationships with others. I recommend "The 9 types of Leadership" for people starting out and focused on a professional context. Good Luck! Like I said, this is all very normal and a typical part of the growth process.