holidays 2021

Tech CEOs and executives tell us their New Year’s resolutions

What’s your boss planning to accomplish in 2022? We asked.

​Reddit CEO Steve Huffman

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told us why he doesn’t like setting New Year’s resolutions. Other CEOs said they want to finish Coursera classes, travel more and be more empathetic.

Photo: Reddit

Lose the quarantine 15? Read more? Improve work-life balance? No matter your resolution, the new year is a chance to reset priorities, chase new goals — or just finish what you started in 2021.

So, what are the busiest people in tech hoping to tackle in 2022? We asked 11 CEOs and other top executives what they want to accomplish in 2022, and learned that some of them want to be more present, others look forward to more travel and some just don’t like resolutions. Here’s what else they told us.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman

"I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. They're a form of procrastination. If something is that important, I should start it immediately.”

Roku CEO Anthony Wood

“Finish the linear algebra and machine learning Coursera classes — I have been halfway through for a while.”

Asana Chief Operating Officer Anne Raimondi

"A planner by nature, I love creating to-do lists and ticking off tasks and milestones. Doing this has its benefits — I feel organized and accomplished, and achieve my goals. But I'm also a very creative person and I've noticed that my best ideas emerge in unexpected places. That's why I'm committed to creating more space for serendipity in the new year."

Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier

“My resolution is to finally get back out on the road and start to see people again. We've done a good job of maintaining relationships with our customers and partners, but there is no substitute for face-to-face interactions. Also, I became CEO during the pandemic and haven't had a chance to see Red Hatters in-person. This year, I want to travel and see associates again safely.”

Airbnb global head of Hosting Catherine Powell

“As we learn to live with COVID-19, my goal for 2022 is to seize the opportunity for travel powered by flexibility and remote work. This will be the year I discover more of the U.S. (Georgia and Nashville are next on my list), reconnect again with family overseas and spend time with team members and Hosts whom I have only so far met via Zoom.”

Atlassian co-founder and co-CEO Scott Farquhar

"My New Year’s resolution is to focus on being more present with people. More effort concentrated on less things. I took a sabbatical this year to caravan around Australia with my family, and it gave me the headspace to think about how I can best contribute to the great relationships in my life. From my family to my friends and also my team, this year has taught me to deeply value these bonds. As life gets busy, this is sometimes easier said than done, but I’m going to try and prioritize this in 2022."

Genesys CEO Tony Bates

“Continue to embrace empathy in everything I do both at work and at home.”

Mitel president and CEO Tarun Loomba

"In the new year, I’m making a concerted effort to drive a culture of urgency, ownership, risk-taking and focus. There are some amazing opportunities in front of us, and in order to capitalize, we must move quickly and with urgency. This goes hand-in-hand with supporting a fail-fast, intelligent-risk mindset. We all want to win every time. That’s not reality. Embracing a fail-fast mindset helps give teams the freedom to be aggressive, experiment, learn without negative consequences and make faster and better decisions as we go.”

Ivanti CEO Jeff Abbott

“My New Year’s resolution is to build a winning culture at Ivanti: creating an environment where the individual is highly respected and the mission and core values are demonstrated at every level, making Ivanti an even better place to work. There is a war on talent, and it’s critical to treat every individual as a gem and help them to thrive in the new Everywhere Workplace.”

HackerOne CEO Mårten Mickos

"I don't make New Year's resolutions. I try to make small resolutions every day or every week. I try to make resolutions that are good for other people: listen more, be more supportive, be more present, be more thankful. Such promises are more fun to fulfill than the stereotypical resolution to do more exercise!"

DigitalOcean CEO Yancey Spruill

“My resolution for 2022 is to stay present. I have learned a lot this year about myself, and one thing I need to work on is taking things as they are and not getting too far ahead of myself and others, and dealing with the present.”

 Allison Levitsky
Allison Levitsky is a reporter at Protocol covering workplace issues in tech. She previously covered big tech companies and the tech workforce for the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Allison grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from UC Berkeley.
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