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