Log in or become a subscriber

The "silly season" can be a hectic time for all employees, and especially for working parents, but it is possible to maintain high performance without burning out, a mental skills coach says.

Author, speaker, trainer and coach James Laughlin stresses that when he talks about high performance, he means holistic high performance.

Laughlin tells HR Daily he once had a "heated debate" about burnout with one of Australia's leading psychologists, who argued that "high performance just means winning, and winning, and winning".

But as mental ill health, anxiety, depression, and suicide rates climb, he defines high performance as "consistently exceeding norms whilst maintaining healthy relationships and wellbeing".

"So when I'm working with business folk, busy parents, leaders of countries, athletes, the same thing applies to all of them: How do we win on field and off field?"...