> Then of course the other 20% of the stress are your reports actively trying to undermine you, or publicly question your purpose/existence, or cut you out of decision making processes, going behind your back and contradicting previous agreements, trying to short-circuit or subvert agreed processes etc etc for above childish reasons.
Frankly, this makes it look like you are indeed a problem that deserves to be questioned and bypassed whenever possible.
This sort of viewpoint is the perfect example - the short-sighted kneejerk "I know better" response that jumps to conclusions without taking into consideration (...or frankly even being aware of) any context or rationale or background info for why things are the way they are.
People like this cause problems and headaches for everyone as they are loose canons causing havoc, confusion, and wasted effort.
Congrats - you are very likely your manager's biggest annoyance.
If you think something is wrong or inefficient or whatever, talk about it with your manager or skip-level. Don't just take matters into your own hands and subsequently screw things up for loads more people by doing stupid things like entering into/cancelling agreements/commitments with other teams/customers etc because you think your manager is a bozo.
My thought as well. My manager loves it when I cut him out of the decision making process. It means less work for him and the whole point of having senior ICs is to let them take on those responsibilities.
Frankly, this makes it look like you are indeed a problem that deserves to be questioned and bypassed whenever possible.