🔑 Winning Trust: How to Navigate Resistance from Senior Stakeholders

rajbanerjee
17 minutes ago
2 min read

Strategies for Building Trust: Overcoming Challenges with Senior Stakeholders

Change is easy to design on paper. The real challenge comes when you face resistance from senior stakeholders—people with power, experience, and perspective who aren't quick to buy into new processes.

I've faced these many times in my 25+ years leading banks and financial institutions across India and Africa. Whether it was digitizing workflows, reorganizing a branch network, or introducing new risk frameworks, the first reaction was often the same: skepticism.

Here’s what I've learned about earning trust in those moments.

1. Listen Deeply, Understand First

At one stage in Africa, when I proposed introducing Agent Banking, the initial response from senior managers was resistance. Their fear wasn’t about the idea itself—it was about losing control and risking compliance breaches. I realized I had to listen first. By inviting them to share their worries in detail, I uncovered valuable insights that shaped how we built stronger controls later.

2. Communicate Benefits in Their Language

Numbers alone don’t persuade. Senior leaders care about

alignment with strategy. In India, when we expanded SME lending, I didn’t start with product specs. I framed it around revenue growth, risk diversification, and regulatory alignment. Once they saw how it supported the organization’s broader goals, their stance shifted.

3. Offer Evidence, Not Just Opinions

When we rolled out the Chap Chap Bid Bond in Uganda, I relied heavily on evidence, including case studies from peer banks, pilot runs, and testimonials from SME clients. The hard data showed a massive revenue lift; silencing doubts faster than any presentation could.

4. Involve Them in the Build

The moment you invite senior stakeholders into the process, the resistance often begins to weaken. At Axis Bank, I created cross-functional working groups for branch transformation projects. This gave leaders from compliance, credit, and operations a seat at the table. Their fingerprints were on the final solution, so they owned it—not just approved it.

5. Follow Through Consistently

Nothing builds credibility faster than doing what you said you would. Even small things—weekly updates, transparent progress notes, admitting delays—show stakeholders that you’re dependable. In one case, this reliability turned skeptics into vocal advocates who championed the change in front of the board.

6. Adapt Flexibly

No process change survives intact. Feedback from senior leaders is often blunt, but it’s usually valuable. I’ve learned that flexibility isn’t weakness—it signals maturity. When we merged cultures in cross-border banking teams, adapting our KPIs based on stakeholder concerns about “speed vs. quality” made all the difference.

💡 My Takeaway

Resistance isn’t a wall. It’s feedback in disguise. Senior stakeholders push back not because they want you to fail, but because they need to be reassured that change won’t erode trust, performance, or culture.

The leaders who earn trust are the ones who:

✔️ Listen deeply

✔️ Communicate clearly

✔️ Prove with evidence

✔️ Share ownership

✔️ Deliver consistently

✔️ Adjust when needed