What ‘Get Into a Fistfight’ and Bosses’ Other New Year’s Resolutions Mean for You

A clarification is in order. This isn’t an invitation to start a brawl in the conference room.

Mr. Choi, 43 years old, took up boxing five months ago and is training for his first bout. He’s found combat sports alluring ever since a colleague at a former employer showed up one Monday with cuts and bruises from a weekend of mixed martial arts and became the office badass. 

For a guy with a desk job who remembers being the last pick for playground basketball as a kid, it’s all about the challenge.

“It’s asking myself, ‘Can I do it?’” says Mr. Choi. “I like having goals that feel out of reach, that feel different.”

Throwing and taking literal punches may be an uncommon C-suite ambition, but many bosses tell me that they, too, are ready to push themselves in 2023. Employees, take note: When the person calling the shots goes hard-core, it could be a cue to crank up your own effort—or at least play along.

A lot of leaders who had to scale back professional and personal goals as the Omicron variant spread in early 2022 welcome a new year in which the pandemic funk is finally over. They’re rarin’ to go. As the year of “quiet quitting” and worker leverage ends with layoffs and recession warnings, the not-so-subtle message to the rank and file may be that it’s time to match the top brass’s ambition and intensity.

Uri Haramati, chief executive of New York software-management company Torii, plans to run an ultramarathon. Ashley Kramer, chief marketing and strategy officer of San Francisco software company

GitLab,

aims to take multitasking to a new level by conducting one-on-one meetings while skiing.

After all, the latest executive flex is, well, flexing a buff body. 

Josh Lospinoso, CEO of cybersecurity firm Shift5 in Rosslyn, Va., will attempt something seemingly impossible in the corporate world: “My New Year’s resolution is to make my public statements sound less like ChatGPT could have generated them,” he says, referring to the artificial intelligence tool that exhibits as much personality as some executives.

Some managers’ resolutions have clear implications for their subordinates. Amir Ashkenazi, CEO of virtual-meeting company Switchboard, vows to deliver more direct, honest feedback next year. 

Yikes.

“Feedback creates this commitment between people to do better work,” he says. “When you know that people care about what you do, you will try harder.”

Mr. Ashkenazi adds that he expects to dole out plenty of compliments, along with constructive criticisms. He also hopes that his roughly 30 employees will feel comfortable critiquing him.

Leore Avidar, who leads the investment firm Alt and direct-mail company Lob, says he’ll “be the VP of nothing, so I can spend my time hiring and coaching top talent.”

Translation: The people under Mr. Avidar may enjoy more autonomy—and feel more pressure.

Andy MacMillan,

CEO of customer-research firm UserTesting in San Francisco, plans to visit remote employees more often. He says he embraces hybrid work but values face-to-face meetings. He hopes his staff take the hint and follow suit with their clients.

“If you’re an enterprise sales rep and you live in Detroit, and there’s a bunch of customers in and around Detroit but you’ve decided you’re never going to go visit those customers, I’d rethink that strategy,” he says.

Other bosses’ pledges could affect their teams indirectly, even if the stated reason is personal health. Kashyap Deorah, CEO of geolocation firm HyperTrack, is giving up carbs—including alcohol—after sunset. The self-imposed penalty for imbibing? Ten push-ups per beverage. 

Forget about schmoozing him over beers at happy hour, at least until the longer days of spring.

Cutting back on booze is always a popular resolution, and it’s especially apt after a season of toasting office reopenings and knocking a few back at holiday parties, says Gillian Tietz, founder of the Sober Powered Media podcast network in Arlington, Mass. She recalls a few tipsy embarrassments at corporate functions when she worked in biotech and says she stopped drinking altogether three years ago. She organizes dry social events for colleagues and encourages other business leaders to avoid putting alcohol at the center of team bonding next year.

Many people prefer divisions between their work and personal lives, anyway, and don’t want to talk to co-workers—in a bar or on Slack—once the clock strikes 5 p.m. Some managers say they’ll try harder to respect such boundaries, though these resolutions are often laced with secondary motives such as improving employee engagement and helping workers recharge so that they can do their jobs better. 

Encouraging down time can be a strategy to boost productivity.

Rebecca Johnston-Gilbert, head of marketing operations at software maker Postman, says she’ll set a new expectation for employees to wait until morning to respond to her after-hours emails.

“I aim to instill a culture that helps our team bring the intensity we need to accomplish great things, balanced with the healthy respect for work-life balance we need to ensure long-term sustainability and avoid burnout,” she says.

Todd McKinnon,

CEO of cybersecurity company

Okta,

is building a sailboat with his 12-year-old son and aims to finish by the Fourth of July. The kid dreams of sailing from California to Hawaii; Mr. McKinnon says he’ll be happy if the thing floats.

Seaworthy or not, the boat is a conversation starter at work and sometimes prompts others to talk about their own interests, he says. That breeds familiarity, he says, and can help people work better together. 

“If you have a disagreement with someone that you don’t have a relationship with, you might just walk away,” he says. “But if you know them, you’re more likely to work through it.”

Write to Callum Borchers at [email protected]

A clarification is in order. This isn’t an invitation to start a brawl in the conference room.

Mr. Choi, 43 years old, took up boxing five months ago and is training for his first bout. He’s found combat sports alluring ever since a colleague at a former employer showed up one Monday with cuts and bruises from a weekend of mixed martial arts and became the office badass. 

For a guy with a desk job who remembers being the last pick for playground basketball as a kid, it’s all about the challenge.

“It’s asking myself, ‘Can I do it?’” says Mr. Choi. “I like having goals that feel out of reach, that feel different.”

Throwing and taking literal punches may be an uncommon C-suite ambition, but many bosses tell me that they, too, are ready to push themselves in 2023. Employees, take note: When the person calling the shots goes hard-core, it could be a cue to crank up your own effort—or at least play along.

A lot of leaders who had to scale back professional and personal goals as the Omicron variant spread in early 2022 welcome a new year in which the pandemic funk is finally over. They’re rarin’ to go. As the year of “quiet quitting” and worker leverage ends with layoffs and recession warnings, the not-so-subtle message to the rank and file may be that it’s time to match the top brass’s ambition and intensity.

Uri Haramati, chief executive of New York software-management company Torii, plans to run an ultramarathon. Ashley Kramer, chief marketing and strategy officer of San Francisco software company

GitLab,

aims to take multitasking to a new level by conducting one-on-one meetings while skiing.

After all, the latest executive flex is, well, flexing a buff body. 

Josh Lospinoso, CEO of cybersecurity firm Shift5 in Rosslyn, Va., will attempt something seemingly impossible in the corporate world: “My New Year’s resolution is to make my public statements sound less like ChatGPT could have generated them,” he says, referring to the artificial intelligence tool that exhibits as much personality as some executives.

Some managers’ resolutions have clear implications for their subordinates. Amir Ashkenazi, CEO of virtual-meeting company Switchboard, vows to deliver more direct, honest feedback next year. 

Yikes.

“Feedback creates this commitment between people to do better work,” he says. “When you know that people care about what you do, you will try harder.”

Mr. Ashkenazi adds that he expects to dole out plenty of compliments, along with constructive criticisms. He also hopes that his roughly 30 employees will feel comfortable critiquing him.

Leore Avidar, who leads the investment firm Alt and direct-mail company Lob, says he’ll “be the VP of nothing, so I can spend my time hiring and coaching top talent.”

Translation: The people under Mr. Avidar may enjoy more autonomy—and feel more pressure.

Andy MacMillan,

CEO of customer-research firm UserTesting in San Francisco, plans to visit remote employees more often. He says he embraces hybrid work but values face-to-face meetings. He hopes his staff take the hint and follow suit with their clients.

“If you’re an enterprise sales rep and you live in Detroit, and there’s a bunch of customers in and around Detroit but you’ve decided you’re never going to go visit those customers, I’d rethink that strategy,” he says.

Other bosses’ pledges could affect their teams indirectly, even if the stated reason is personal health. Kashyap Deorah, CEO of geolocation firm HyperTrack, is giving up carbs—including alcohol—after sunset. The self-imposed penalty for imbibing? Ten push-ups per beverage. 

Forget about schmoozing him over beers at happy hour, at least until the longer days of spring.

Cutting back on booze is always a popular resolution, and it’s especially apt after a season of toasting office reopenings and knocking a few back at holiday parties, says Gillian Tietz, founder of the Sober Powered Media podcast network in Arlington, Mass. She recalls a few tipsy embarrassments at corporate functions when she worked in biotech and says she stopped drinking altogether three years ago. She organizes dry social events for colleagues and encourages other business leaders to avoid putting alcohol at the center of team bonding next year.

Many people prefer divisions between their work and personal lives, anyway, and don’t want to talk to co-workers—in a bar or on Slack—once the clock strikes 5 p.m. Some managers say they’ll try harder to respect such boundaries, though these resolutions are often laced with secondary motives such as improving employee engagement and helping workers recharge so that they can do their jobs better. 

Encouraging down time can be a strategy to boost productivity.

Rebecca Johnston-Gilbert, head of marketing operations at software maker Postman, says she’ll set a new expectation for employees to wait until morning to respond to her after-hours emails.

“I aim to instill a culture that helps our team bring the intensity we need to accomplish great things, balanced with the healthy respect for work-life balance we need to ensure long-term sustainability and avoid burnout,” she says.

Todd McKinnon,

CEO of cybersecurity company

Okta,

is building a sailboat with his 12-year-old son and aims to finish by the Fourth of July. The kid dreams of sailing from California to Hawaii; Mr. McKinnon says he’ll be happy if the thing floats.

Seaworthy or not, the boat is a conversation starter at work and sometimes prompts others to talk about their own interests, he says. That breeds familiarity, he says, and can help people work better together. 

“If you have a disagreement with someone that you don’t have a relationship with, you might just walk away,” he says. “But if you know them, you’re more likely to work through it.”

Write to Callum Borchers at [email protected]