Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, lead a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you have creatives, you 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 and a fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, was really challenging. You know, I think the only has been change. And as a leader, you obviously — you have a workforce that’s 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 … responsible for, was that you couldn’t offer certainty, and you couldn’t always control the environment and the 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 and keep people informed as we try and move through things? And then, also just how we lead 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. have employees who are remote. We have an incredible team in Ukraine … employees who on the front lines, who are literally at war. On the other hand, you have people in parts of the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, and so I it was really just — the hardest part was not being able to give everyone certainty, 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 time a culture that is more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, has trust.
SM: Can you give an example of something you put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to communications or build trust or create a greater sense of community or even to communicate that there is certainty, that is a muscle that you think you’ll continue to in the organization far into the future?
AS: There’s couple of things that we did. One — and are a video platform, so I obviously have to talk video, but I mean this sincerely — one of hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is you lose and you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make a concerted effort to move away email and chat, text-based communication, as much as possible, actually try, particularly for our leadership team, when we were communicating, do it with your face, and your hands and your body and emotions. And we did that through live streaming a of communications, recording a lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So send … I record my screen and just send note out to people. Every new hire does a video to and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually replaced with just quick presentations. And actually, what that really did was allow humanity and the context to come through and I that helped us a lot to, kind of, stay close. So that was one, think, really important thing.
Another important thing is, I think, just creating to make it easier to talk about when things aren’t working, because a critical part of being is recognizing we have an area that isn’t working. And one of the things that we do at Vimeo we try — I do this in all of my halls, we do it in a lot of meetings — is always talk about what’s working, what are our three things, and what isn’t working — yet. And we’ve kind created, I think, a framework that sort of takes the away from talking about what’s not working. And when you make that normalized and comfortable people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, an organization, about what do we need to change, what do 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. many of our members of our workforce live in a world. They’re used to video as a means of communication. brings me to my next question. You’ve talked about how organization 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 it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of the things that we think about at Vimeo lot is a lot of the mechanisms and communication modes we still use today, they’re really antiquated. They were designed for a totally different and a totally different generation. But I see a of differences. One of them, I think, is the line between personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If you about your personal life — look at TikTok. This generation is used consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. if they then have to come to work and to be trained on a job, read 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? Or if you miss the meeting, and have 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 of — you know, we talk about the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for the way … we communicate and interact in our personal is going to translate to work. And so I think that’s an area of opportunity.
The other thing see from sort of the generation, the newest generation into the workforce, is sort of, of course mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire really understand the “why” behind things. And one of our mantras is we never talk about the “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s a to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, or “My boss me that this is what we’re going to do” — that, I think, is increasingly moving away, and people, they don’t just want to do something because with formal authority told them to do it. They to do it because they understand why it matters, it ties to the mission. And I think that that forces leaders to bring more of the “why” into how we communicate and motivate people.
So are two of the things I see, and then, you know, the third think is just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all of us, but particularly younger generation — I think they’re looking for flexibility they want options and choices. And it’s not always and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where I and orient it more to agility. How can we have approaches and and be committed to things, but also know when to question, and when actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of ways that you at have tried to really be proactive when it comes to or understanding what your next generation of employees are going to want, in terms of purpose or in terms of benefits in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or processes you’ve put place that really speak to this big sea change we’re seeing terms of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all 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 of the things that we’ve done, we have a people culture NPS, net promoter score, the same way we have for our users, for internal teams. But I would say one of the things that we’ve really tried to is appreciate that when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … can’t look at the averages. You can’t look at it all totality and try and pull out an obvious “Oh, is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — you really dig into it and truly listen and do focus groups talk to people — what you’ll find is actually there’s very different and desires among your employees. And so, I think us, what we’ve really just tried to do is have a bunch of different listening mechanisms and then resist urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this is what everyone’s feeling, let’s do this thing as the action.” And it’s hard, and we’re still kind figuring it out, but I will tell you, some of things that we’ve heard from employees have changed our approach hybrid work or travel or even things like our approach 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. we used to have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” approach in the name of consistency and fairness, and we found is we have to be more localized. We really do. We have to design mechanisms support our teams in a very different way, because their and the world around them is quite different.
So think that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, it has involved lot of — as an executive team and leadership team — it’s involved lot of trying things, it not working, and changing them. a great example is our Q and A. I feel every leader I know has a perspective on whether they do open Q A or anonymous Q and A, or real-time Q A. We’ve changed our approach there multiple times, and know we will again, because we’re still figuring out the right way to listen and have a dialogue a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay newcomers to the workplace for just another moment, because another thing I hear from of my generation and older is a concern about making sure that we are not just our youngest employees with the flexibility and the purpose that 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 job for many years. What is your philosophy and take on making that knowledge 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 a very distributed workforce Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My team is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being to have a distributed workforce and being able to attract talent and just more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, lack 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 approaches that we’ve been taking, and what’s sort of nice, is we’re modeling at the top. So if my entire executive team is distributed, that I have 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 the executive team almost in the last twelve months. So I’ve had to deal with same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we call it operating system — we’ve had to design an operating system, as an executive team, for how we’re to work 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 we have to be able to do it ourselves and model and then, I think it’s a more proven mechanism young people. I will say, like many companies … do believe that in-person collaboration is really important for learning. We do — we bring people into an office. If you’re remote, we folks to come in and spend time in a with their team, do social activities, all of those things. I don’t think will go away, nor do I think they should. But, you know, candidly, it’s area that I don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly I think it’s really critical that as leaders, we that, so that this next generation is able to the same growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, it’s interesting — the tools that you mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation, around video, be really helpful there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations that really encouraged their young people to present, as a way having to go out and find the information they need. And then, we have video tools available to us now, you know, they have an opportunity to share their with a large group of people, but first, kind 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 different that people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. the Black Lives Matter protests, we had a lot people coming to the office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble the surface. I’m wondering if you can share a little bit how you deal with this increasing personal — you know, when bring their whole selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, bring things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always thought the responsibility of a is to empower people to do their best work the responsibility of a company is to empower 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 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 by trying to provide mental-health resources or or time off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. I that’s really important. And I always say, to so of our managers … just care. If we just care, a lot of get easier. You don’t have 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 realizing now, in of this next phase, is that that’s a reactive approach and actually the root — that we can control at Vimeo — the root cause of a lot of stress and burnout sometimes people either don’t have 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 do we 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 too going on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, we should into the “What is the detail there, and do we need to do differently?” And, you know, one of our themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there going to be stakeholders who say, you know, “Out with all of touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. Where are my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think pendulum has already swung pretty clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, 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 best leaders and cultures deliver results and treat people well. And actually think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, you get better results. And so, you know, for me, I think what I observed the last few years is — that part, I think, hasn’t changed shouldn’t change. There were, I think, a lot of times when companies, we things because maybe it was lip service or we pressured. And 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 you channel how you are caring towards your employees and how you are empathetic, always should in service of helping people do their best work, will deliver results, which will be good for the bottom line. you have to believe that. You have to be committed to that and you use that consistently in your decision-making, it should not be trade-off. These are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have been taking care of yourself during this period of tremendous and change, but also growth? You mentioned you just a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, do you practice some self-care or do you make sure that you’re getting the balance you need to the most effective leader you can be?
AS: I — recently, the phrase I use a lot to myself is “two things be true, both can be true.” I say this a lot. And for me, I of it as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public the height of the pandemic and last year, market volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re going through a ton with post-pandemic, we have a team in Ukraine through a war — all these things that have happened. 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 way I’ve to kind of lead, has been — it’s always been way, which is, for me, it’s I have to have passion. have to have passion. I have to believe so that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters for the world. And if have passion, I have energy and then I will — I can kind of move through anything. I have to joy in my team. I feel like, especially in hard times, I look back at career and actually, some of my most fulfilling times in work were — in the hardest business situations. But it’s because it a group of people together all on one team, and I think that’s been, you know, a 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 support network around me and I do … My and I have a deal, where on Sundays, I for a couple of hours. I just disappear and walk around the city and I listen to my music and do whatever 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 it today. It’s basically in 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 idea of an office as a time and place completely away. And I think it’s really going to be 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 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” — I think that’s to go away. And I think what you’re going to is more and more work, particularly from knowledge workers, is to be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration will happen asynchronously and will be using tools and technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable at scale among many people, anywhere in the world. then I think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because I think it’s going 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 to be like, “How do you communicate with diverse, global audiences and employees time zones in a way that is effective, that provides and alignment at scale? How do you organize programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All of that is to look very different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll see is just … there these constraints that we’ve lived with, whether it was time or place or budget, in some cases. I think those constraints are going to go away. the promise is that if we are flexible and smart and use technology in the right way, that we’ll actually come away much more 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 you energy to lead that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. was great.