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