Qualities of a Star Employee: What an IAS Officer Taught Me
What are the real qualities of a star employee? Deputy Collector Anjali Dhanorkar showed me in a Stars at India Inc interview far beyond government offices.
What actually makes someone a star employee? I got a clear answer sitting across from Deputy Collector Anjali Dhanorkar, IAS, during my research for Stars at India Inc. It comes down to initiative, calm authority, and genuinely accepting feedback — the same habits McKinsey found in India's most effective managers, who already spend 21 hours a week in meetings.
TL;DR- Star employees show initiative and turn obstacles into innovation, not excuses
- The best administrators build systems, like a digital file-tracking dashboard, instead of relying on memory or hierarchy
- Genuinely accepting feedback, even from someone junior to you, is what separates good leaders from great ones
- You can enforce discipline without raising your voice; tone control builds more authority than volume
- People skills matter as much in government service as in corporate life, because public contact never stops
What Makes Someone a "Star Employee" at Work?
When I began researching my book Stars at India Inc with my co-author Kaustubh Panse, we kept meeting corporate leaders and hearing the same handful of qualities repeated: initiative, ownership, and the ability to read a room. I wanted to test whether the same qualities hold outside the corporate world, so I sat down with Anjali Dhanorkar, Deputy Collector of Aurangabad, on camera. Her answer surprised me: the qualities that make a star employee in a government office are almost identical to what I see in the best teams I train.
Why People Management Matters as Much in Government as in Corporate Life
Dhanorkar made a point I hadn't considered: a factory worker might spend eight hours a day next to a machine with minimal human contact, but a government officer rarely gets eight minutes without someone walking in, a subordinate, a colleague, or a visitor with a pending file. That constant contact is exactly why people management skills matter as much, if not more, in public service as they do on a shop floor or a sales team.
| Quality | How It Shows Up in Government Service | How It Shows Up in Corporate Teams |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative & Innovation | Building systems like weekly grievance days or digital file tracking | Proposing process fixes before being asked |
| Reading People | Assigning teams to officers based on their real interests | Matching tasks to team members' strengths |
| Calm Authority | Enforcing discipline without raising your voice | Giving tough feedback without triggering defensiveness |
| Accepting Feedback | Listening to a junior colleague's suggestion without ego | Taking 360-degree feedback seriously, not just performance-review theatre |
| Follow-Through | Personally tracking pending files until closed | Following up on action items after every review meeting |
The Innovation Habit: How One Collector Solved Recurring Complaints
She described her former collector, Kunal Kumar, who noticed villagers were making repeat trips to the collector's office for routine issues. His fix was a weekly "Gramastha Abhiyan" where officers went to the villages instead, plus a digital file-tracking dashboard so no one could claim a request was "still on someone else's desk." Neither idea needed new budget or new staff, just someone willing to build a system instead of tolerating a broken one.
Be a Good Suggestion Box: Taking Feedback Without Ego
The line that stuck with me most was hers: "be a good suggestion box." Early in her career, a junior clerk politely told her, at her own farewell function, that her voice carried to the far end of the office whenever she reprimanded someone, and that it was affecting her team's stress and her own health. Instead of dismissing feedback from someone lower in the hierarchy, she listened, accepted that it was true, and changed how she led.
How to Handle Difficult Situations Without Raising Your Voice
That change showed up years later during election duty, when a crowd of 600 to 700 polling officers began drifting away mid-training. The old version of her would have shouted them back into their seats. Instead, she picked up the mic, asked everyone to sit for five minutes, and calmly read out the legal clauses they would otherwise have missed. Nobody left. This is the exact shift I coach in my corporate training programs: volume rarely gets compliance, clarity and calm authority do.
Follow-Through: The Quiet Discipline Behind Every Star Performer
Dhanorkar also pointed to Kunal Kumar's habit of personal follow-up, checking on pending work himself until it was actually done, and quietly reviewing details other officers had already signed off on, right down to chair placement for crowd sightlines during the Ellora Festival. None of it looked dramatic. All of it is why his teams delivered.
What This Means for Your Team
I bring examples like this into every session I run for corporate teams: real people, real trade-offs, not textbook theory. If you're building a leadership pipeline in your own organisation, this is the kind of case study we work through together, and you can get in touch for a training quote based on your team's size and format.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What qualities make someone a "star employee" according to your Stars at India Inc research?
Based on interviews across sectors for this book, the recurring qualities are initiative, the ability to read what motivates the people around you, calm authority under pressure, and a genuine willingness to accept feedback, even from someone junior to you.
Do the same leadership qualities apply in government jobs and corporate jobs?
Yes. Deputy Collector Anjali Dhanorkar's interview makes the case directly: government officers deal with near-constant public contact, arguably more than most corporate roles, so people management skills matter just as much, if not more.
How can a leader stay in control of a team without shouting at employees?
Anjali Dhanorkar's approach was to lower the volume without lowering the standard. She addressed problems in clear, direct language instead of raised volume, and relied on consistent follow-up rather than intimidation to get work done.
How can I bring these leadership lessons into my own team or organisation?
I use real case studies like this one in the corporate training and leadership sessions I run. If you want a similar session for your team, get in touch through the contact page for a quote based on your group size and format.
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