The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question “How do you keep your best employees?” is by Carmencita Bua, COO of Continuum.

Employee retention isn’t a mystery. The key is to help your team construct and maintain a happy, respectful relationship with your company.

There is no magic recipe that will fabricate these relationships — you must foster an environment that encourages employees to create them. You need to assume an honest position aligned with your values — one that works for your internal structure and makes your organization successful in the marketplace. Keep these elements in mind:

Be caring

How do you show you care? You must demonstrate this in a concrete way.

Invest time and attention in your employees. Talk with them — not to them or at them. Listen to them and respond. Focus less on putting on an impressive show at formal staff meetings and more on meeting your colleagues outside of work — a visit to a coffee house might do — to discuss your vision. Remember to be open to questions, doubts, and suggestions. If you don’t engage in an open way, you’ll never take the first step toward an honest relationship.

So make sure you communicate openly with your employees. As Martin Buber put it: “All actual life is encounter.”

Believe

Before I was appointed director of the Continuum Milan studio, I asked myself if I wanted to migrate from a background in law — at a time when I was innovating many aspects of that profession — to managing a group of creative people with a mission to improve lives around the world.

Did I believe in the mission? Was I aware of the many challenges I needed to go through to fulfill that mission? Did I know how to evolve Continuum going forward? I didn’t have the answers to my questions, but I was intrigued by the opportunity, and I decided to learn while managing.

I strongly believe that employees want to learn but also teach. I consider myself a “learning leader,” and am proud to say I’m often speechless in meetings in which Continuum’s engineers and strategists discuss cutting-edge technologies and behavioral methods.

The “learning leader” doesn’t create the company’s vision based on shareholders’ interest and bottom line alone. Instead, she learns her employees’ passions and values in order to design an emotional structure that creates the right career path and the right experience for each employee.

For three years, we built the platform for collaboration and knowledge-sharing based on employees’ passions, capabilities, and relationships. The goal to become a global consultancy wasn’t just a top-down message. It was implemented, thanks to everyone’s belief that we could serve our clients better while growing ourselves if we shared our cultural differences and insights across our organization.

Give more

Leaders need to show they’ve put effort into their decision-making processes, even when external factors, such as a global financial crisis, strongly impact the life of organizations. We can’t ask high-performing team members to work hard and deliver without considering differentiated compensation, even during hard times. Showing employees we value their contributions and dedication to the company will give them more reason — and desire — to stick around.

领导力内部网络是一个邀请最有智慧、最具影响力的商界人士及时回答职业与领导力问题的在线社区。我们本期的问题是“如何留住最优秀的员工？”。以下为Continuum公司COO卡门奇塔·布阿的回答。

要留住员工，并不是一件多么神秘的事情。关键在于，如何帮助你的团队建设并维持一种与公司之间快乐且相互尊重的关系。

建立这样的关系没有什么秘诀，你需要培养一种能够鼓励员工去创造这些关系的环境。你需要设想出一种和你的价值观相一致的诚实立场——这种立场既适合团队的内部结构，又能帮助你的公司在市场上获得成功。你需要牢记下面几个因素：

关爱

你如何展示你的关爱？你必须用一种具体的方式来展现这一点。

在员工身上投入时间和关注。与他们交流——而不是他们听你滔滔不绝地讲话。倾听他们的意见，并予以回应。讨论你的愿景时，应该更重视工作时间之外与同事的会面，比如一起去咖啡厅，而不是在正式的员工会议上进行一番精彩表演。切记，要坦诚接受任何问题、质疑和建议。要想建立诚信的关系，你必须以开放的心态进行交流，否则你永远无法迈出第一步。

因此，与员工的交流要开放坦诚。正如马丁·布伯所说：“凡真实的人生，皆是相遇。”

信任

在被任命为Continuum米兰工作室的总监之前，我问自己是否愿意放弃我的法律专长，去管理一群极富创造力的人，并将改善所有人的生活作为使命。当时，在法律方面，我做出了许多方面的创新。

我相信这个使命吗？我是否知道要实现这一使命需要面对许多挑战？我是否知道如何发展Continuum？我并不知道这些问题的答案，但我被这样一个机会深深吸引，于是我决定一边管理一边学习。

我坚信，员工不仅想学习，而且想传授管理之道。我将自己视为“学习型管理者”，可以很自豪地说，当Continuum的工程师和战略家们讨论尖端技术与行为法时，我经常哑口无言。

“学习型领导者”不能仅根据股东的利益和财务状况确立公司的愿景。相反，她要了解员工的激情与价值观，才能设计出一种情感结构，为每一名员工创建合适的职业发展途径和适当的职业经历。

三年来，我们根据员工的热情、能力和关系，建立了合作与知识共享平台。成为一家全球性咨询公司这一目标，并不仅仅是一条自上而下传达的信息。这个目标得到了切实的执行，因为每个人都相信，只要我们能够容纳彼此的文化差异和视野，我们便可以在自我发展的同时，更好地为客户提供服务。

给予更多

领导者需要展示他们在决策过程中付出了努力，即便公司的生存受到了外部因素的严重影响，比如全球性的金融危机。即使在艰难时期，我们也不能不考虑薪酬上的差距，便要求高效团队成员努力工作，取得成果。向员工证明，我们重视他们对公司做出的贡献，能够让他们有更多留下的理由和愿望。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

审校：任文科