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