In Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down (Harvard Business Press, 2009), Sylvia Ann Hewett offers a wealth of eminently practical advice. Here are four brief excerpts:

“The best way to keep your prized people engaged is to keep in touch. Get out from behind the barricade of your desk and walk around, visiting workstations and offices. This practice counters the bunker mentality that people fall into under stress. Even good managers need to be reminded to communicate more than usual during times of crisis…. You can also further reassure employees by expanding the number of people you reach out to directly. Not only does this reinforce a sense of camaraderie, but it also reduces the risk of information being garbled as it’s passed along.” (Pages 37-38)

“The first step for companies wanting to hold on to – and make the most of – their high-performing women is to understand why they might want to leave. It’s not that smart women aren’t deeply committed to their careers or that they don’t need to work. Our data shows that in December 2008, despite industry smackdowns, fewer than a quarter (22 percent) of high-performing women who had ‘one foot out the door’ planned to take time out of the workforce. Most were seeking less onerous – and more meaningful – work.” (Page 80)

“A massive layoff is like a death in the family. It leaves survivors shaken and unbalanced – and needing to talk. Most organizations now realize that to expect remaining star employees to pick up the pieces and soldier on as though nothing has happened is not only unrealistic but unfeeling. A badly handled layoff can sow bitterness and rancor that will fester for years. Although there’s no changing the underlying situation, showing genuine sympathy makes all the difference.” (Pages 96-97)

“There are few guarantees in these uncertain times. But one thing is certain: only by reengaging your talented employees and instituting management practices that turbocharge their brainpower will you have both the ideas and the commitment to overcome adversity, flourish in prosperity, and continue to attract smart people for years to come. In the words of James S. Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young, ‘In a down market, leveraging your talent to create competitive advantage is more important than ever.’” (Page 132)

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Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founding President of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a non-profit think tank where she chairs the “Hidden Brain Drain,” a task force of 67 global companies committed to global talent innovation. She also directs the Gender and Policy Program at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Hewlett is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum Council on Women’s Empowerment. She is the author of nine Harvard Business Review articles and 11 critically acclaimed nonfiction books including Off-Ramps and On-Ramps and Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets (Harvard Business Press).

Her writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and the International Herald Tribune, and she is a featured blogger on Harvard Business Online and Forbes. In 2011 she received the Isabel Benham Award from the Women’s Bond Club and Woman of the Year Award from the Financial Women’s Association. She is a frequent guest on television, appearing on Oprah, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, the Today Show and CNN headline News. Hewlett has taught at Cambridge, Columbia and Princeton universities. A Kennedy Scholar and graduate of Cambridge University, she earned her PhD in economics at London University.