SBI top boss Arundhati Bhattacharya to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Is spiritual quotient equally important as EQ?

Being a boss is difficult. Now imagine presiding over an organisation with over a lakh employees, who in turn serve millions of customers in the remotest parts of the country. It's not surprising that State Bank of India chairperson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, has questions about managing the dilemmas leaders are often faced with.

During a conversation with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at his ashram in Bengaluru, she asked, "... sometimes the decisions don't turn out the way we had intended them to. Then the fallout is such that it can be very difficult to manage. In such a situation, what should leaders depend upon? Earlier, a leader was expected to have high intellectual quotient.

Then, it was emotional quotient.

"Do you think in today's day, it is the spiritual quotient that is more or equally important?" She touched upon a range of issues during the chat: from keeping employees motivated to the rising wave of protectionism to managing a healthy work-life balance. As a senior female leader, she queried about the best ways of retaining women in the workforce and supporting them to rise to the top. "At the recruitment level, 33 per cent are women but at the top management, it becomes 4 per cent. So many women have fallen by the way.So, what do we do?" The responses of the Art of Living founder combined everyday pragmatism and spiritual guidance. In essence, he said that with clarity of mind and action in place and a desire to do good for the society at large, many moral dilemmas can be resolved.