Happiness at Work Is the Ability to Be Oneself: How Belonging, Authenticity, and Psychological Safety Drive Performance

At SHRM 2026, the panel “HR Executive Insights: Architecting the Future of the Global Frontline Workforce” brought together some of the most influential HR leaders in the world for a conversation that cut straight to the core of modern leadership.I approached Bettina A. Deynes, Global Chief Human Resources Officer of Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company, immediately after the panel. Continuing the thread from each executive in this series, I asked her one question: What is happiness at work?Her answer was immediate, personal, and profound.“Happiness at work is the ability to be oneself, to know that you’re going to be able to be part of a community where you feel like you belong, where you can do your best work, when you can connect with people that aim to have the same goals and achieve the same success.”Read that one more time. In a single sentence, Bettina identified the four pillars that decades of research have proven drive human thriving:* Authenticity — the ability to be oneself* Belonging — being part of a community* Peak performance — doing your best work* Shared purpose — connecting with people who share the same goalsThis isn’t corporate optimism. This is an executive who leads People Strategy for over 200,000 employees across 9 cruise line brands, sailing to over 700 ports around the world; distilling what makes people actually happy at work into its purest form.Who Is Bettina A. Deynes?Bettina A. Deynes serves as the Global Chief Human Resources Officer of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest leisure travel company. Carnival’s portfolio includes iconic brands such as Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and others, operating over 90 ships across six continents.In this role, Bettina oversees the global people strategy for a workforce that spans dozens of nationalities, languages, and cultures, all operating in one of the most complex and people-intensive industries on the planet. Managing HR for a global cruise fleet is unlike any other industry: your employees don’t just work for the company; they live inside the company. The ship is their office, their home, and their community — sometimes for months at a time.Before Carnival, Bettina served as Chief Human Resources Officer of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) itself; the world’s largest HR professional society; giving her an unparalleled vantage point on the trends, research, and challenges shaping the future of work globally. Her career spans senior HR leadership roles across industries, and she is widely recognized as one of the most influential HR executives in the world.When Bettina speaks about belonging and community, she isn’t speaking in abstraction. She is speaking from the reality of building cultures where people from every corner of the world must come together, find belonging, and deliver extraordinary experiences every single day, at sea.The Belonging Principle: Breaking Down the InsightBettina’s response is deceptively simple. Within it are three interconnected leadership lessons that every executive needs to understand:1. Authenticity Is the Foundation of Happiness“The ability to be oneself.” Before belonging, before performance, before connection there must be a workplace where people don’t have to mask who they are. Bettina places authenticity first in her definition, and that’s not accidental. If employees can’t show up as themselves, no engagement initiative, no team-building retreat, and no compensation package will produce genuine happiness.2. Belonging Is a Community, Not a PolicyBettina doesn’t say “inclusion” she says “part of a community where you feel like you belong.” There’s a critical difference. Inclusion can be a policy, a checklist, a training module. But belonging is a felt experience. It’s the difference between being invited to the table and actually feeling like you’re supposed to be there. In Carnival’s world, where thousands of employees from different countries live and work together on a ship this isn’t optional. It’s operational survival.3. Shared Purpose Fuels Connection“Connect with people that aim to have the same goals and achieve the same success.” Happiness at work isn’t just about individual fulfillment, it’s about collective alignment. When people feel they are working toward something together, connection becomes organic. Bettina is describing the difference between a group of individuals performing tasks and a community pursuing a shared mission.The Science: Psychological Safety and Google’s Projec