那么，如何留住自己的明星员工呢？虽然你已经尝试过询问他是否面临什么难题，但麦克唐纳德还是建议你再试一次。他认为：“留住优秀员工是管理者最重要的职责。其中很大一部分在于沟通，尤其是找出哪些措施可以激励员工，调动其积极性。比如升职，或许是弹性工作时间，也可能是将这名员工调任到公司其他部门，以扩大员工的知识面，令其始终面临挑战。”

    当你面临这种局面的时候，要尽量弄清员工对个人职业的长远看法。一旦优秀员工觉得自己被困在当前的职务当中，看不到未来向好的方向，他们往往会变得焦躁不安，所以麦克唐纳德建议：“讨论一下在你看来，这名员工未来在你的领域或在整个公司内会有什么样的机会。”

    麦克唐纳德表示，如果你能养成习惯，经常与最重视的员工进行类似的对话，将来也就没有什么理由担心他们打算跳槽了。

    他说：“身为管理者，我们把大多数时间都用于解决问题，比如表现不佳的员工，或者完成我们自己的工作。管理者往往想不到预留时间给优秀员工，事后却追悔莫及。把优秀员工放在首位，然后是我们自己的本职工作，最后才是问题员工，这样的顺序安排更加有效。”虽然说起来容易做起来难，但总比好员工出了问题之后再去挽留他们要容易一些，所以这条建议值得尝试。

反馈：如果你正在考虑换工作，有哪些因素能说服你留在当前的公司？如果你是一名管理者，你如何保持员工的积极性？欢迎评论。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    What can you do now to keep your star? Even though you've already tried asking him what's bugging him, McDonald suggests you try again. "Retaining top performers is one of the most important things managers do," he says. "A big part of it is communication, in particular finding out what motivates this person and what would keep him engaged. It might be a promotion, or flextime, or steering the employee toward projects in other parts of the company that would expand their knowledge and keep them challenged."

    While you're at this, try to find out how the employee sees his career long-term. Top performers often get restless when they feel stuck in their current role, with no clear path to something better, so "talk about what opportunities you see ahead for this person, either in your own area or elsewhere in the company," McDonald adds.

    If you get in the habit of having these conversations with your most valued people on a regular basis, McDonald says, you'll have less reason to wonder if they're job hunting in the future.

    "As managers, we spend most of our time on problems, including underperforming employees, and on getting our own work done. Budgeting time for high performers becomes almost an afterthought," he observes. "What works a lot better is flipping that order on its head, putting top employees first, then our own work, then problem employees." Easier said than done but, as holding on to stars gets harder, it's worth a try.

Talkback: If you're thinking of changing jobs, what would convince you to stay with your current company? If you're a manager, how do you keep employees engaged? Leave a comment below.