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