Keep morale high and attrition low with these simple strategies for a happy staff.

Whether you have a team of three or 30, chances are you have employees you really, really don’t want to lose. If you’re lucky, it’s all of them. But retaining a great staff can be a delicate art. You have to reward your superstars without spoiling them, praise without playing favorites and make sure you still have the leverage to push employees to do their best work. Here, seven designers share their best tips on the care and maintenance of a fantastic staff.

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It’s a mistake to offer praise or critique before you understand a situation completely, says Florida designer Marc Thee. “You’ll walk into something your staff has done, and you can end up unintentionally doing a lot of damage by offering feedback before you know what happened,” he says. “Sometimes people take credit for things that others did. Sometimes there are issues beyond anyone’s control. In front of a large group, it might be insensitive to praise a designer or team on a recent achievement without first checking with leadership to understand if others have recently had similar achievements. Over the years I’ve really learned to slow down, take my time and hold back my thoughts until I have a complete picture. Asking the right questions before formulating an opinion proves again and again that partial understanding can really be far from reality.”