All the amazing comments here have really covered most of my thoughts on this having experienced it myself (fired from a job I had been with since it was a START UP and was totally blindsided and heartbroken and embarrassed when it happened...and in my case they let go of my entire deptartment/division, so I was the leader who went quite literally down with the ship...
Having this traumatic career event really messed me up, and because it was only 2 months before covid hit, the financial impact of unemployment was greatly eased by expanded covid unemployment benefits but my period of unemployment greatly exacerbated by this as well as my industry (foreclosure /default services) was hit hard and the supply and demand outdated things to the point that it took me 8 months to find another job and when I did, I was forced to pivot into an unfamiliar area of the industry and step back from a director level role to a supervisory role...
I thought myself very supportive and that I was a cooperative leader with a skill for team building and process improvement all of which I brought to my new role, eventually some of the coworkers from my previous company left their role to join me in my new place of employment and we worked together to bring about real measurable improvements and a lot of change...much of which was communicated as needed but less then appreciated once achieved due to it shining a light on other areas of weakness within the organization that they were not yet willing to admit or able to address, leading to a lot of perceived resentments toward our team and a campaign of blame and finger pointing at us and me specifically , all if which i thought was an unfair mischaracterizations that created a difficult and exhausting environment to work in day after day when always having to be on the defensive.
When I recently reflected back on my early start as a new member of an established but quickly growing and changing team and how I spent months reviewing all the issues until I confidently laid out to my VP that the only way to achieve the level of success he wanted was that a systemic and procedural change would be needed as well as needing to pursue a new vendor partner as our growth had simply outdated the current long term vendor that they had been using for over a decade despite their clear performance failures and inability to meet service level expectation for many years.....and i laid out a full performance monitoring system as well as plans to source a new vendor....but when they were not willing to put the financial and staffing support into my recommendations/action plans i lost a lot of time blaming things that i had brought to their attention that they had refused to fix and this struggle went on for almost two years until the AVP who happened to also be my direct boss finally gave it to me straight on a business trip we attended together and where I was once again firing off about how the limited and inept views of our SVP had kept my hands tied to the point I felt i was working with one hand behind my back , and he looked at me and then finally told me flat out no upgrades or enhancements to the system were possible and we needed to work with what we have and find another way to solve the problem. Period. So it had taken three times longer but eventually began ebbing higher and higher in our performance and after 3.5 yrs turned a dismal inherited performance score of 2% to a 98% that we have upheld long term for the last 4 quarters, and improvements to our performance metrics, vendor scorecards, client SLA, and compliance scores hwvr all may have been achieved faster had I understood that the DENIALs I was receiving were not because I was an outsider or to punish me for highlighting other issues and them wanting to conceal or avoid dealing, and that i was so wrapped up in my own personal perceptions i had convinced myself that i was cast as an enemy, rather than the reality of the situation was that it was my own refusal to work with others interests in mind. So I had to really reflect on this and ask some tough questions about my precioua confidence to be a skilled agent of change and if I was then I should be capabale of finding multiple solutions to what really was multiple problems....and As our team and direct leadership is keenly aware of the all around improvements that we were able to force through manual process changes, and baby steps without rocking the cradle or requiring the original time and money investment i had recommended I regret having been so insistent that I alienated myself way more than I had known and also regret that it took as long as it did for my AVP to comfortably take me aside and explain what I was percieving as other peoples issues were my issues and the teams issues and frankly I am grateful that I wasn't shown the door before I could adjust my sails.
I am not saying this is your situation I am only mentioning mine to inform you upon your own reflection times now as it is so haed to deal with thr onslaught of emotions, self doubts, anger, confusion and financial distress that the real tragedy eould be if we dont at least get some truths and lessons as a take away.
since your comment was emphatic about the need for the CIO to heed your recommendation that I thought it may be helpful to ask yourself during your reflection period if the CIO''S ineptness was real or perceived on your part or if there is a possibility there was "a fit issue" simply their way of hinting they were unable to work cooperatively with you to bring change in a way that they were willing and able to accept? Remember this is not blame i am putting on you because communication works both eays and if they had an issue with your fitting in yo the company values and culture then they should have made attempts to illustrate this to you annd provided clear and measureable explanations and examples that fed this perception.
since they do not seem to be willing to provide you with honest feedback and clarity on whete you may have fallen shy of performance expectations the hard work lands on your shoulders ro ask yourself these questions.
was it an inept operational leader that created these perceptions .... or.... were requests met by your own insistence that what they wanted was not able to be done because they had denied the only avenue of recourse....?
while many times there may be an easier way to achieve a specific result there is truly very few situations where there is ONLY ONE WAY and if this may have lent to a perception that you were not collaborative or flexible enough for compromising with the corporate leadership team based on effects to the whole rather than just what would bring improvement to your singular area.
If you were consistently meeting all hurdles with a spirit of adaption, collaboration and cooperation and it was truly this one CIO who was problematic then admit you were thr victim of circumstances out of your control and move along. If you reflect on this and take away that you need to work on your soft skills to be perceived as a more team oriented player, then you can take steps toward improving and strengthening yourself in this area and reap the benefits through success in your next role.
I wish you the best of luck and I am truly sorry you are going through this. It sucks no matter the reason and it hurts a lot. But it does get better. Count on it. You have all the control in this moment. Get it !
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