What Top Happiness Experts Want Leaders To Know About Quiet Quitting

Forbes

a day ago

What Top Happiness Experts Want Leaders To Know About Quiet Quitting
Leaders keep asking why so many people are disengaged, but they rarely ask what's keeping others happy. To find out why there is such an increase in quiet quitting, it can help to look to the experts for advice. I've interviewed a leader at a brain health center at a top university, a chief happiness officer who once guided Coca-Cola's global wellbeing strategy, a Google executive who reverse-engineered the formula for joy, a CBS news anchor turned positive psychology researcher, and the psychologist who introduced emotional intelligence to the mainstream. Each of them explained something leaders often miss: happiness at work goes beyond being cheerful, because it involves how people interpret stress, process identity, and make decisions when no one's watching. And when people start quietly quitting, the brain has already checked out long before leaders recognize it.
How Happiness Affects The Brain And Prevents Quiet Quitting
Stephen White, Executive Director of the Brain Performance Institute at the Center for BrainHealth at UT Dallas, told me that happiness activates reward pathways in the brain that boost motivation, attention, and learning. When people feel like their contributions matter, the brain releases dopamine and other neurotransmitters that keep them engaged. But when they feel invisible or powerless, those circuits stop firing. Quiet quitting often begins when the brain no longer anticipates any meaningful return from effort. Stephen said, "You can see it neurologically. When people feel overlooked, they conserve energy. It's the brain protecting itself." Leaders looking to reverse disengagement need to first understand what the brain is reacting to: emotional disconnection, not a lack of skill or ambition.
How Happiness Builds Mental Control And Resilience At Work
Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer at Google X and author of Solve For Happy, told me that workplace happiness depends on whether people believe they have control over their experience. After studying thousands of personal reflections on happiness, he found a pattern: people are happiest when they take ownership of their thoughts. At work, that means recognizing that not every challenge is personal and not every setback is permanent. Mo explained, "If people believe they have no influence, they detach. But if they believe their input can shape an outcome, even a little, they stay engaged." Leaders who create space for questions and reflection are giving people a mental framework for resilience.
Why Identity Drives Happiness And Reduces Quiet Quitting
Silvia Garcia, former Director of the Coca-Cola Happiness Institute, emphasized that real happiness comes from alignment between work and identity. In our conversation, she explained that people need to feel they are welcome as themselves. When they have to edit their personalities, hide their values, or suppress their style, engagement erodes. Silvia told me, "Belonging is about showing up whole. When that's missing, people protect themselves by withdrawing." Leaders sometimes focus on culture fit or team cohesion without realizing the toll it takes on individuality. The happiest employees often stay because they feel seen, not because they feel praised.
How Focus Training Can Improve Happiness And Engagement
Michelle Gielan, a former CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, told me that what people are trained to focus on becomes what they experience. In her research, she found that a few minutes of intentional focus on progress, connection, or gratitude dramatically changes a person's emotional baseline. Michelle said, "If your brain is constantly scanning for problems, it will find them. But if you train it to look for meaning and momentum, it builds emotional resilience." For teams, that might mean starting meetings with wins instead of to-do lists or asking better follow-up questions that reflect individual strengths.
When I asked Michelle what it's like being married to another happiness researcher, she laughed and said that their arguments are probably not what people would expect. Her husband, Shawn Achor, wrote the bestseller The Happiness Advantage and has also spent years studying how optimism affects performance. Michelle said, "We don't fight about being happy. But we do remind each other that the story we're telling ourselves in the moment might not be true." That concept of reframing the story has been at the center of Shawn's work, which focuses on how to train the brain to interpret challenges as temporary, local, and controllable. Together, their research found that happiness is the presence of meaning and mental agility.
How Emotional Intelligence Builds The Foundation For Happiness
Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence, told me that workplace happiness often depends on one overlooked skill: emotional self-awareness. He explained that people can't feel engaged if they don't understand themselves. Goleman shared that mindfulness is a fast and accessible way to build that kind of awareness because it helps people notice their internal reactions without judgment. "When people train their attention," he said, "they become calmer, more focused, and more resilient to stress." He also pointed out that presence is the starting point of empathy, and that leaders who are fully attentive in conversations build trust without needing to overthink it. For organizations, that means happiness grows through everyday moments of connection.
What Is A Chief Happiness Officer And Why That Role Is Growing
The role of Chief Happiness Officer has gained attention in recent years, not just as a trendy title but as a strategic position focused on emotional well-being at work. These professionals are tasked with helping organizations understand what drives engagement beyond compensation and titles. They look at psychological safety, connection, autonomy, and culture from a human perspective. Silvia Garcia, who held this role globally at Coca-Cola, told me the most important part is aligning people's experience with the values the company claims to stand for. More companies are realizing that tracking performance metrics isn't enough. They need someone at the table who understands how emotions affect decision-making, collaboration, and retention. Happiness has become more measurable, and Chief Happiness Officers are being asked to prove what works.
Conclusion: Happiness At Work
Happiness in the workplace grows from how people are treated, how they interpret challenges, and whether their daily experience aligns with what they value most. The experts I spoke with showed that quiet quitting can be prevented long before it starts if leaders understand the psychology and neuroscience behind motivation. Happy employees stem from environments that protect their attention, recognize their identity, and support their sense of control. That kind of culture is what keeps people thinking, contributing, and staying.