Why Your Workplace Assassins Will Never Truly Defeat a High Performer: They Not Like Us

The neuroscience (brain research) of high performers reveals that, as a high performer, we have more efficient neural processing, maintain better focus by using our brain cycles efficiently, and cultivate/practice specific elite performer mindsets and behaviors. This includes managing cognitive load, utilizing key neurotransmitters like dopamine and acetylcholine for motivation and learning, and developing physical and mental agility.

As high performers, we may not be fully conscious of how we utilize our brains to produce our exceptionally consistent excellence, but this lack of self-awareness does not negatively impact our ability to do so time and time again. I know you may not be in my mental health field, so what you read below may sound like psychobabble, but this is the data that I use to do what I do to help you heal your workplace trauma and empower you to go the distance. I offer this blog post if you want to understand how and why you will always defeat the mediocre workplace performers who plot your demise simply because you are a superior performer. Here’s what the brain science experts know, and now you know too.

Cognitive Function and Efficiency: Your High Performer Brain’s How

• Efficient processing: High performers use different, more efficient brain processing, which keeps our brains "cooler" under cognitive pressure.

  
  

• Higher degree of neural synchrony: (the coordinated, simultaneous firing of neurons/cognitive functioning) in high performers compared to low performers.

  • Attention

  • Perception

  • Memory

    
    

• Brain cycles: They work with the brain's natural focus cycles, taking short breaks after about 90 minutes of focused work to recharge attention and prevent performance decline. (This explains why your brain will naturally cycle itself into mindless “daydreaming” every 90 minutes or so to facilitate its own “workplace break”.) For years, I have strongly advised clients to go with the daydreaming flow lest they cause what will ultimately feel like a nervous breakdown from overworking their brain cycles. 

  
  

• Cognitive load management: High performers balance their cognitive load to avoid improper brain functioning.

Neurotransmitters and Motivation: Your High Performer Brain’s Why

• Dopamine: This neurotransmitter increases focus and motivation, and is released when a task is clearly defined and intrinsically rewarding for you. (This explains why you become so frustrated by an inexperienced, unqualified boss who fails to define clear goals because they don't know how.)

  
  

• Noradrenaline: This neurotransmitter is released when you are slightly over-challenged, helping the brain respond quickly. It is also linked to diminished mental acuity when levels are low, such as during boredom. (Girl, I can barely control myself when work is boring.)

  
  

• Acetylcholine: This neurotransmitter is crucial for learning and neuroplasticity, helping the brain "rewire" itself and retain new information. This is why elite performers, not afraid of change/learning new things, tend to lead the charge for “let’s change/do something different!”, leaving a bunch of frightened, mediocre performing dinosaurs in their organizational wake.

Mindset and Behavior: Making You Targets for Microaggressions

• Psychological safety: High-performers are motivated by ALWAYS doing the right thing, which encourages faster reporting of mistakes, risks to the physical or psychological safety of others, or ethical violations to ensure rapid turn-around learning.

  
  

• Emotional regulation: MOST high performers can pause before responding to a high-stakes situation, allowing our prefrontal cortex to process information more constructively instead of reacting emotionally.

• Purpose: You understand the "why" behind your team/organization’s work, which drives dopamine release and enhances focus. Purpose-driven goals are more effective than vague ones.

  
  

• Persistence: You understand the time lag between cause and effect and show persistence, trusting that the work put in today will yield results over time.

That’s the upside of how your high-performing brain works for you. Here’s how that same brain that wins you promotions, praise, accolades, and superstar status can also work against you.

How Your Own High-Performing Brain Can Also Be Your Achilles Heel

I am certain you remember me posting many times on TikTok about "risk factors" as those situations/conditions that deflate your resiliency, i.e., your ability to recover from the ravages of workplace trauma. Although our brains function with a higher level of efficiency and efficacy than our average low-performing co-workers and supervisors, at the very same time, they can become the biggest saboteurs of our own mental health.

The study of neuroscience suggests that highly intelligent people have an overactive prefrontal cortex, leading to endless overthinking. That hyperactive prefrontal region responsible for planning, logic, and stimulation comes at a cost to our overall mental health because often we can't get our brains to shut off. The result is that we simulate too many possible outcomes, making decisions almost paralyzing and fueling unnecessary anxiety.

Scientific research on intelligence correlates a strong link between higher intelligence and mental health issues like anxiety and depression in high performers. Consequences of having a higher level of intelligence include the unproductive habits of overthinking and rumination. Rumination is one of the strongest predictors of declining mental health, including depression and anxiety.

• High performers generate more thoughts per minute, which continually includes more self-criticism, unnecessary introspection, and searching for how they might have done/said something more perfectly.

• Higher intelligence makes you better at abstract thinking/getting the big picture. This is why you can identify and solve problems that others cannot, often triggering your brain to become overly concerned (I call this awfulizing) about the things that your boss may not have the capacity or talent to foresee or, more importantly, even care about.

• Overthinkers tend to isolate because we feel that we are frequently vibing at a higher level of intelligence than our peers. This can translate into workplace or social life isolation (misinterpreted by peers as arrogance or being anti-social) because we are not interested in office small talk or gossip. A high-functioning brain/intelligence level may leave us feeling that there are fewer and fewer people we can connect with or who can communicate on our level.

• Less Happy: highly intelligent high performers spend a lot of time assessing and calculating risks, thinking about what is possible, what might happen and because happiness or contentment is accessed when you live in the present, people who are overthinkers often are less happy or perceived to be less content.

Qualities They Don’t Have But You Do: Reminding You Who TF You Are

Key Characteristics of High Performers:

• Strong work ethic: You are reliable, self-disciplined, and dedicated to your work, consistently meeting deadlines and striving for quality.

  
  

• Problem-solving skills: You demonstrate strong analytical skills and can creatively find innovative solutions to challenges.

• Adaptability and flexibility: You can adapt to changing environments and are comfortable taking on new tasks.

  
  

• Drive and self-direction: You are self-starters who are highly motivated to succeed and often go above and beyond what is asked of you.

• Clear communication: You are effective at conveying your ideas to others.

Factors That Motivate High Performers

• Autonomy and mastery: High performers are motivated by the freedom to exercise control over their work and develop their skills.

  
  

• Purpose: You want to feel their work is part of something bigger and aligns with their personal values and the organization's mission.

• Recognition: You appreciate but do not need to be overly recognized/rewarded for your contributions. (This does not apply to high-performing "people pleasers" who desperately need/seek praise and acknowledgment.)

  
  

• Clear goals: You are motivated by high, clear goals and want to understand how your performance will be measured.

So Queen, now you “consciously” understand that we naturally possess abilities that can prove either a blessing or a curse, because you comprehend what is really happening in your high-performing brain. Increasing your awareness about who you are as a high performer, the impact of your Black Excellence in the workplace, and the workplace’s response to your calling out both their incompetence and undercover racism, continues to be my indefatigable high-performer calling.