Managing a workforce with varied skillsets can be an obstacle for businesses of any size. Here are three tips for navigating this challenge. Photo via Getty Images

As each person is uniquely different, their capabilities are directly reflected in the workplace in terms of how work is delegated to high performing, standard performing and underperforming employees based on their skill sets. For some employees, they thrive when being recognized as the individual who is trusted to always get the job done or complete a last-second task. Meanwhile, other employees may struggle with execution or efficiency, which may mean fewer new assignments for them.

Experienced managers will be able to decipher what is wrong in this scenario. Although it has become a societal norm to assign added work to high performers as a reward, this well-meaning intention can ultimately lead to performance punishments. As the overachievers are “awarded,” the average or below average performers are not placed in conditions that will push them beyond their comfort levels nor to their personal optimal performance capacity. This tactic is also referred to as a “quiet promotion,” in which top performers are given additional work without the benefit of a promotion or increased compensation.

“Quiet promotion” can have severe repercussions for top performers such as increased stress and burnout, which can subsequently lead to lowered productivity. According to a 2022 study by the American Institute of Stress, 76 percent of workers reported that stress harms their overall productivity. To avoid unintentional performance punishments, managers can implement opportunities for continual skill development, provide more balanced workloads and practice honest communication.

Create spaces to develop skills

Yearly reviews are a critical opportunity for managers to highlight their employees’ achievements and identify areas for improvement. However, a formal review is not the only time employees should receive praise or constructive criticism from their managers.

Managers have a more accurate scope of which skills the employee may lack and can assign development opportunities when they touch base with employees throughout the year. This creates a level field for performers to feel eager for development opportunities, and candidates who perform at a lower level will benefit, too. When a culture of continuous development is cultivated, it keeps top performers engaged and mitigates the sense of needing to catch up for those on a development track.

Encourage collaboration

While top performers can complete tasks without additional support, collaboration with colleagues at all levels can elevate work across the board. Partnering top performers with those who may need to fine-tune and develop relevant skills allows top performers to improve their leadership and training skills while building trusting relationships within the team or organization. Group collaboration allows employees to discover and hone their strengths and identify weaknesses so even better work is done together.

Implement honest communication

Top performers, more often than not, work above set expectations. When top performers feel they are due for a promotion as a result of their performance, but have not received it or are overlooked, a once content employee might consider searching for a new job. To avoid potential dispirited employees and impromptu resignations, managers should practice clear and effective communication with their team.

Whether during a yearly review or a biweekly check-in, take the time to ask top performers directly about where they see themselves now, where they would like to go within the organization and whether a promotion is on their radar. In a transparent and open culture, employees will feel more inclined to be outspoken about their intentions. Those who are exploring the idea of moving on will give their manager the opportunity to present other opportunities, advocate for a deserved promotion or articulate a detailed career path to reach the desired position.

Performance punishments are often unintentional, but managers need to be aware the practice can ultimately cause a disconnect within their team and burnout with their top talent. With continual opportunities for skill development, distribution of balanced workloads and transparent communication, managers can lead everyone on their team to growth and success.

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Karen Leal is performance specialist with Houston-based Insperity, a provider of human resources offering a suite of scalable HR solutions available in the marketplace.

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Houston space tech startups share latest updates on lunar missions and more

space update

Houston-based space tech companies Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines recently shared updates on innovative projects and missions, each set to launch by 2027.

Axiom Space

Axiom Space, developer of the world’s first commercial space station and other space infrastructure, is gearing up to launch two orbital data center nodes to low-earth orbit by the end of 2025.

The Axiom Space nodes will lay the foundation for space-based cloud computing. Axiom says orbital data centers provide cloud-enabled data storage and processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning directly to satellites, constellations, and other spacecraft in Earth’s orbit. This innovation will reduce reliance on earth-based systems, enhance wireless mesh networks and improve real-time operation of space-borne assets, according to Axiom.

Axiom has been working on the development of orbital data centers since 2022. The two nodes going into space in 2025 will be part of Kepler Communications’ 10-satellite data relay network, which is scheduled to launch by the end of this year. Axiom Space and Kepler Communications have been collaborating since 2023.

Kam Ghaffarian, co-founder, executive chairman, and CEO of Axiom, says his company already has deals in place with buyers of space-based cloud computing services. Orbital data centers “are integral to Axiom Space’s vision of era-defining space infrastructure, unlocking transformational capabilities and economic growth,” he says.

Axiom Space says it will be able to buy additional payloads on Kepler’s network to boost capacity for orbital data centers. The two companies will team up to provide network and orbital data center services to various customers.

Intuitive Machines

Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines, a space exploration, infrastructure and services company, has picked SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch its fourth delivery mission to the moon. The launch will include two lunar data relay satellites for NASA.

Intuitive Machines says its fourth lunar delivery mission is scheduled for 2027. The mission will comprise six NASA commercial lunar payloads, including a European Space Agency drill set designed to search for water at the moon’s south pole.

“Lunar surface delivery and data relay satellites are central to our strategy to commercialize the moon,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus says.

The first of five lunar data relay satellites will be included in the company’s third delivery mission to the moon. The fourth mission, featuring two more satellites, will be followed by two other satellite-delivery missions.

Houston doctor aims to revolutionize hearing aid industry with tiny implant

small but mighty

“What is the future of hearing aids?” That’s the question that led to a potential revolution.

“The current hearing aid market and technology is old, and there are little incremental improvements, but really no significant, radical new ideas, and I like to challenge the status quo,” says Dr. Ron Moses, an ENT specialist and surgeon at Houston Methodist.

Moses is the creator of NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” NanoEar is an implantable device that combines the invisibility of a micro-sized tympanostomy tube with more power—and a superior hearing experience—than the best behind-the-ear hearing aid.

“You put the NanoEar inside of the eardrum in an in-office procedure that takes literally five minutes,” Moses says.

As Moses explains, because of how the human cochlea is formed, its nerves break down over time. It’s simply an inevitability that if we live long enough, we will need hearing aids.

“The question is, ‘Are we going to all be satisfied with what exists?’” he asks.

Moses says that currently, only about 20 percent of patients who need hearing aids have them. That’s because of the combination of the stigma, the expense, and the hassle and discomfort associated with the hearing aids currently available on the market. That leaves 80 percent untapped among a population of 466 million people with hearing impairment, and more to come as our population ages. In a nearly $7 billion global market, that additional 80 percent could mean big money.

Moses initially patented a version of the invention in 2000, but says that it took finding the right team to incorporate as NanoEar. That took place in 2016, when he joined forces with cofounders Michael Moore and Willem Vermaat, now the company’s president and CFO, respectively. Moore is a mechanical engineer, while Vermaat is a “financial guru;” both are repeat entrepreneurs in the biotech space.

Today, NanoEar has nine active patents. The company’s technical advisors include “the genius behind developing the brains in this device,” Chris Salthouse; NASA battery engineer Will West; Dutch physicist and audiologist Joris Dirckx; and Daniel Spitz, a third-generation master watchmaker and the original guitarist for the famed metal band Anthrax.

The NanoEar concept has done proof-of-concept testing on both cadavers at the University of Antwerp and on chinchillas, which are excellent models for human hearing, at Tulane University. As part of the TMC Innovation Institute program in 2017, the NanoEar team met with FDA advisors, who told them that they might be eligible for an expedited pathway to approval.

Thus far, NanoEar has raised about $900,000 to get its nine patents and perform its proof-of-concept experiments. The next step is to build the prototype, but completing it will take $2.75 million of seed funding.

Despite the potential for making global change, Moses has said it’s been challenging to raise funds for his innovation.

“We're hoping to find that group of people or person who may want to hear their children or grandchildren better. They may want to join with others and bring a team of investors to offset that risk, to move this forward, because we already have a world-class team ready to go,” he says.

To that end, NanoEar has partnered with Austin-based Capital Factory to help with their raise. “I have reached out to their entire network and am getting a lot of interest, a lot of interest,” says Moses. “But in the end, of course, we need the money.”

It will likely, quite literally, be a sound investment in the future of how we all hear the next generation.