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