Leadership lessons from Arundhati Bhattacharya, SBI's first female chairman

Arundhati Bhattacharya’s four-year term at the helm of SBI ended on October 6. Her tenure coincided with the banking sector’s bad-loan woes, and the subsequent fire-fighting to resolve the crisis. She also prepared the ground for the merger of SBI’s associate banks with itself, a process completed earlier this year.
Bhattacharya was on the Forbes list of the World's 25 Most Powerful Women in 2016. Here are some leadership tips from the leader herself:

Prepare for unanticipated:
For Arundhati Bhattacharya, last year as the SBI chief was the most challenging, as several things came in quick succession – demonetisation, merger (with associate banks) and GST.
She suggests that to tackle the unanticipated we had to make rules as we went along and had to lay out the roadway as we progress.

The winning mantra:
She believes a person should be action-oriented rather than merely thought-oriented. That helps cope with stress. For her, putting the right person in the right place is half the battle won.
She also says, “stress is imagining the worst, but if you are acting on what needs to be done, then imagination takes a back seat.”

How to say no
Bhattacharya believes the manner in which one responds to an irrational logic should be constructive rather than destructive. For her, to negate an absurd argument one needs the other person to understand your case.

The quintessential leader
Former SBI boss thinks the first quality for a good leader is to be a good communicator.
You need to talk with as many people as you can to build an opinion. According to her, a leader must be patient, tactful and keep an eye for the goal.

Interaction is the key
For Bhattacharya, the best part of her job was interaction. She says being a CEO helped her talk to many people from rural areas to the leaders in New York.

The most satisfying part of the job
For Bhattacharya, getting the chairman’s job was the most fulfilling part of her journey.

Don’t stop learning
Even as she held one of the most important positions in the Indian banking, she continues to yearn for learning. She wants to pursue a PhD on broad-basing growth. Text Source: TOI