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