The Differences Between a Performer and a High Performer

Game of Thrones, and its Song of Ice and Fire source material before it, connected with viewers around the globe for a variety of reasons. Arguably first among them was escapism. For an hour each week, viewers would disconnect from their lives and focus instead on this intoxicating fantasy realm, replete with magic, medieval brutality, and dragons. But even the most seemingly imaginative of otherworldly distractions requires some ties to everyday reality to land with an audience. For Games of Thrones, one such stark (and Stark) pronouncement that permeated the zeitgeist and became an everyday part of the cultural lexicon was the oft-repeated, ever-ominous assertion: Winter is coming. As clocks turn back in most of the western world, we must contend with the fact that, though we are still in the throes of autumn, winter has come, or at the very least is coming, bringing with it the annual productivity malaise that accompanies the season of darkness. Winter is the least productive season for businesses. That’s according to research from project management software company Redbooth, published in Forbes magazine1. The company analysed their data over a four-year period and found that in winter users completed 22.8% of their tasks on average, compared with 27.3% in the autumn, 25.4% in the summer and 24.5% in the spring. A report by British Summer Fruits2 found that during the colder months, 74% of people find it harder to get out of bed for work, while 37% are far more likely to call in sick. In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens proclaimed that, “Darkness is cheap.” Not, it seems, if you’re running a business contending with a seasonal productivity slump.

Sometimes, even the most passionate and dedicated individuals can experience a dip in motivation and passion for their work or career. If you find yourself in this situation, you’re not alone. The good news is that there are ways to rekindle your passion and reignite your drive to excel. In this post, we’ll explore some psychological theories of motivation and social psychology concepts that can provide practical advice for reigniting the spark in your professional life.

Meetings have become the defining ritual of corporate life. They structure our calendars, consume our energy, and far too often erode our productivity. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average worker spends two days a week in meetings and on email, equating to 40% of their time at work, while executives spend an astonishing 23 hours a week in meetings alone, according to MIT’s Sloan School of Management [1]. In the US, this translates to a staggering cost of at least $25,000 per employee annually in lost productivity, representing one of the most significant drains on organisational resources in contemporary business [2]. The shift to remote and hybrid work has exacerbated these challenges, as organisations increasingly rely on meetings to maintain alignment, ensure visibility, and compensate for the perceived loss of in-person interaction [3]. In some company cultures, meetings have even evolved into monitoring tools rather than collaborative spaces for meaningful exchange. Yet despite this proliferation, Harvard Business Review research reveals that 70% of meetings impede employees’ efforts to accomplish “productive work” [4]. The data is unequivocal in showing that not only do we have too many meetings, but many of them are unnecessary or downright counterproductive.