June 10, 2025

S35 Ep2: Lauren Farina - Rest After Stress: The Psychology of High Performance

26 minutes

Today, Steve speaks with Lauren Farina, psychotherapist and founder of Invited Psychotherapy & Coaching. Lauren and Steve discuss how wellness is becoming a bigger part of the workplace and how we can stay mentally healthy during times of stress and pressure. Also an expert on “high-performance individuals,” Lauren shares what it means to be high-performing and why rest can be just as productive as work.

Key Takeaways:

Being a high-performer isn’t just about work.

Rest is productive

Building psychological safety within an organization is the most important contributor to elite performance.

Tune in to hear more about:

What the “High Performer Archetype” is (6:15)

The risks of not taking time to rest (11:22)

How leaders can improve the performance of their teams (19:33)

Standout Quotes:

“ As many of us know, acute stress is quite good for us. But in the long term, the chronic unrelenting demands that I think remote working arrangements have placed on the workforce, really can erode our performance because our cognitive functioning is not at its peak when we're chronically stressed, our memory, our learning, our judgment, our decision making is compromised.” - Lauren Farina

“ There was a five -year study at Google called the Aristotle Project, and the Aristotle project found that psychological safety is the single most important factor when it comes to the elite performance of individuals and groups.“ - Lauren Farina

“ It is my hope that there will be an increased focus on intersectionality of performance and wellbeing and increased support of individuals and groups in cultivating wellbeing. Not only for the sake of wellbeing, but also for the sake of peak performance.” - Lauren Farina

Read the transcript of this episode

Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts

Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter

From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

...more