Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here with us today.
Anjali Sud: you, it is great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, lead a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you creatives, you have finance people, you have technologists. So I’m going to start with a really question: what was it like to manage this diverse through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, was really challenging. You know, I think the only constant has change. And as a leader, you obviously — you a workforce that’s looking for certainty, and they’re looking control what’s happening around them. And I think what we all found, as leaders, no matter what you were … responsible for, was that you couldn’t offer certainty, and couldn’t always control the environment and the things around you. And so, you know, for me, it was really agility. How do we stay flexible as a team? do we communicate in real time and keep people informed as we and move through things? And then, also just how do we lead with more humanity? know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve really learned over the last few years is we experience the world so differently. We have employees who are remote. We an incredible team in Ukraine … employees who are on the lines, who are literally at war. On the other hand, you people in different parts of the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, so I think it was really just — the hardest part not being able to give everyone certainty, not being to just apply a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I think it forced us, as a company, to build more trust, to be agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, you have to trust each other. And so, I’m of optimistic that actually we’re emerging from this time with a culture that is flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can you an example of something that you put into place, during the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust or create a greater sense of community or even communicate that there is no certainty, that is a muscle you think you’ll continue to use in the organization far into future?
AS: There’s a couple of things that we did. — and we are a video platform, so I obviously have to about video, but I mean this sincerely — one of the hardest parts, when you’re all of disparate, is you lose context and you lose when you communicate. And we did make a concerted to move away from email and chat, text-based communication, as much as possible, actually try, particularly for our leadership team, when we were communicating, to do it your face, and your hands and your body and emotions. And we did that through live streaming a lot communications, recording a lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So send … I record my screen and just send a note out to people. Every new hire does video to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve replaced with just quick video presentations. And actually, what that really did allow the humanity and the context to come through and I that helped us a lot to, kind of, stay close. that was one, I think, really important thing.
Another important is, I think, just creating mechanisms to make it easier to talk when things aren’t working, because a critical part of being agile is recognizing we have area that isn’t working. And so one of the things that we at Vimeo is we try — I do this in all of my halls, we do it in a lot of meetings — is talk about what’s working, what are our top three things, and what isn’t working — yet. And we’ve of created, I think, a framework that sort of the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. And when you make normalized and comfortable for people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be open, as an organization, about what do we need to change, what do we need to pivot. both of those, being more video-first in our communication and being transparent and normalizing what’s not working, I think has been really helpful, and certainly something we’re forward.
SM: I love that advice about being video-first. So many of our members of our workforce in a video world. They’re used to video as a means communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve talked about the organization has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is with the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen Z coming the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, know, one of the things that we think about at Vimeo a lot is a lot of mechanisms and communication modes that we still use today, they’re antiquated. They were designed for a totally different environment and totally different generation. But I see a lot of differences. of them, I think, is the line between your life and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about your personal life — at TikTok. This generation is used to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a specific way. And if they then have to come to work and be trained on a job, read a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? Or if you the meeting, and you have to watch the Zoom recording of three-hour meeting — that’s just not going to happen. And I think that there is definitely sort of this — you know, we about the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just fancy words saying the way … we communicate and interact in our personal is going to translate to work. And so I definitely think that’s an area of opportunity.
The thing I see from sort of the generation, the newest generation into the workforce, is sort of, of course mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to understand the “why” behind things. And one of our communication mantras is we never about the “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s desire to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, “My boss told me that this is what we’re to do” or — that, I think, is increasingly moving away, and people, don’t just want to do something because someone with formal authority told them to do it. They want do it because they understand why it matters, why it ties to the mission. And think that that forces leaders to really bring more of the “why” into how we and motivate people.
So those are two of the things see, and then, you know, the third I think just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all of us, but particularly the younger — I think they’re looking for flexibility and they options and choices. And it’s not always easy and to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try and it more to agility. How can we have approaches and principles be committed to things, but also know when to question, and when to pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of ways that at Vimeo have tried to really be proactive when it comes to addressing or understanding what your next of employees are going to want, either in terms of purpose or in terms benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or you’ve put in place that really speak to this big sea change we’re in terms of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all about listening, right? I think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried listen and understand our workforce is very similar: it’s Q and As and engagement surveys, and like that. And some of the things that we’ve done, we have people and culture NPS, net promoter score, the same way we have for our users, for internal teams. But I would say one of the things that we’ve really tried to do appreciate that when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t at the averages. You can’t look at it all in totality and try pull out an obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you — when you really dig into it and truly listen do focus groups and talk to people — what you’ll find is actually there’s very different experiences desires among your employees. And so, I think for us, what we’ve really just tried to do have a bunch of different listening mechanisms and then resist urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this is what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this thing the action.” And it’s hard, and we’re still kind of figuring it out, but will tell you, some of the things that we’ve heard from employees have changed approach to hybrid work or travel or even things like approach to compensation or our approach to DE and I. So think it’s more just like I said, that agile listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, but not everything as, like, an average or the same. And for us, it’s been stark because we have offices and teams in so many different and the differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, about way we solve different things. And we used to have very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach in the of consistency and fairness, and what we found is we have to be more localized. really do. We have to design mechanisms to support teams in a very different way, because their experiences the world around them is quite different.
So I that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, it has involved a of — as an executive team and leadership team — it’s involved a of trying things, it not working, and changing them. And a great is our Q and A. I feel like every leader I know has a perspective on whether they open Q and A or anonymous Q and A, or real-time Q A. We’ve changed our approach there multiple times, and know we will again, because we’re still figuring out the right way to listen have a dialogue with a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers to workplace for just another moment, because another thing I from CEOs of my generation and older is a concern about making sure that we not just providing our youngest employees with the flexibility the purpose that they need, but also the training the wisdom that comes, oftentimes, from being in close proximity a mentor or to somebody who’s done the job for many years. What is your philosophy and take on making sure that transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t know that will sort of have a solution for. I think that all the time. We have a very distributed at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My executive is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being able to have distributed workforce and being able to attract talent and be more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the youngest folks that entering the workforce. So I think it’s a challenge. of the approaches that we’ve been taking, and what’s sort nice, is we’re modeling it at the top. So if my entire team is distributed, that means I have to learn to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a set of new executives who have just joined. We have sort of changed the executive team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve had to deal the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — call it our operating system — we’ve had to an operating system, as an executive team, for how we’re going to work in that environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do we create right communication loops? And so I think, from my perspective, it’s more we have to be to do it ourselves and model it and then, I it’s a more proven mechanism for young people. I will say, like companies … I do believe that in-person collaboration is really important for learning. We have — we bring people into an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks to come in and time in a room with their team, do social activities, all of those things. I don’t think will go away, nor do I think they should. But, know, candidly, it’s an area that I don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly and I think it’s really that as leaders, we do that, so that this next generation is able to get the growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the tools you mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation, around video, can be helpful there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations that have really encouraged their people to present, as a way of having to out and find the information they need. And then, we have video tools available to us now, you know, they an opportunity to share their ideas with a large of people, but first, kind of going through the fact-finding and the research, and then sharing their ideas. an earlier comment, you talked a little bit about mental illness and the different things people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. the Black Lives Matter protests, we had a lot people coming to the office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble to surface. I’m wondering if you can share a little bit about how you deal with this personal — you know, when people bring their whole selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, bring things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve thought the responsibility of a leader is to empower people to do their work and the responsibility of a company is to empower our people to do best work. And so, of course, we have a role to play in supporting things like mental-health issues burnout. And, you know, the way I think, like many companies, the way initially probably sought to do that was more, you know, you’re seeing a problem and you’re reacting trying to provide mental-health resources or support or time off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. think that’s really important. And I always say, to so many our managers … just care. If we just care, a lot of things get easier. You don’t to design a hundred mechanisms if you just have the right people in place care. At the same time, I will say what we’re realizing now, sort of this next phase, is that that’s a reactive approach actually the root cause — that we can control at Vimeo — the cause of a lot of stress and burnout is sometimes either don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking people to too many things or they don’t feel like they’re in doing those things. And that, I think, is actually where we should be spending more — is how do we actually set the right prioritization and focus. There’s some issue there, right? There’s root cause there that’s a “Oh, I feel like I’m because there’s too much going on. I don’t feel equipped to it.” Then, we should get into the “What is the detail there, and do need to do things differently?” And, you know, one of themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there are going to be stakeholders who say, know, “Out with all of this touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. Where my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think the pendulum has already swung pretty clearly. I mean, I in SAS, software as a service, so we already went from “growth at all cost” to “profitability,” know, pendulum swing. My perspective on this — and it hasn’t changed — I think the best and cultures deliver results and treat people well. And actually think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, will get better results. And so, you know, for me, I think what observed over the last few years is — that part, think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. There were, I think, a lot of when companies, we did things because maybe it was lip service or we felt pressured. And that’s going to be sustainable. But that’s not what — ultimately, that’s not what people need, any case. So, you know, I sort of see it — the way you channel how you are caring your employees and how you are empathetic, always should be service of helping people do their best work, which deliver results, which will be good for the bottom line. And you to believe that. You have to be committed to that if you use that consistently in your decision-making, it should not be a trade-off. are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking care of during this period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You mentioned you just had baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, you practice some self-care or how do you make sure that you’re getting the balance you need to the most effective leader you can be?
AS: I — recently, the phrase I use a lot to myself “two things can be true, both can be true.” I this a lot. And for me, I think of it as, like, “This is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public at the height of pandemic and last year, market volatility has been tremendous. know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, we have a in Ukraine going through a war — all these things that happened. And so, it’s a hard job, and it’s incredibly privileged job. It’s a gift, right? And so, think for me, it’s sort of acknowledging both of those has helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried kind of lead, has been — it’s always been this way, which is, me, it’s I have to have passion. I have have passion. I have to believe so deeply that Vimeo is doing is important and matters for the world. And if have passion, I have energy and then I will — I kind of move through anything. I have to find joy my team. I feel like, especially in hard times, I look back at my career and actually, of my most fulfilling times in work were when — in the hardest situations. But it’s because it brought a group of people together on one team, and so I think that’s been, know, a really big part of it. And then, yeah, like, you have to be little selfish sometimes, and take care of yourself. And I am really fortunate. I think I have a support network around me and I do … My husband I have a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear for a couple hours. I just disappear and I walk around the city I listen to my music and do whatever I need to do, and that’s really important.
SM: you talked about how hybrid work is going to look different in the future than how we describe it today. It’s basically in office a couple days, work from home a couple of other days. Tell us a little bit more what you could potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I the idea of an office as a time and place completely goes away. And think it’s really going to be people are going to want work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the of where you’re located is going to change. And then the idea of like “I’m going to on this time zone” or “I’m going to attend this meeting that’s scheduled on date” — I think that’s going to go away. And I think what you’re going find is more and more work, particularly from knowledge workers, is to be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration will happen asynchronously and we will using tools and technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable that scale among many people, anywhere in the world. And I think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because I think it’s to require — if you think about the skill to be a global CEO 30 years ago versus what that require now — I think in the future … skill set is going to be like, “How do you communicate diverse, global audiences and employees across time zones in way that is effective, that provides context and alignment at scale? do you organize programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All of that is to look very different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll see is just … were these constraints that we’ve lived with, whether it time or place or budget, in some cases. And I those constraints are going to go away. And the promise is that if we are flexible and smart we use technology in the right way, that we’ll actually come away a much more evolved efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think you just showed us some of the passion that you’ve talked as being the thing that gives you energy to lead that of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. This great.