Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so you’re here with us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to here.
SM: At Vimeo, you lead a workforce of 1,300 worldwide — you have creatives, you have finance people, you have technologists. So I’m going start with a really easy question: what was it like to manage this diverse workforce through a pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, it a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was really challenging. You know, 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 them. And I think what we all found, as leaders, no what company you were … responsible for, was that you couldn’t certainty, and you couldn’t always control the environment and the things around you. so, you know, for me, it was really about agility. How we stay flexible as a team? How do we in real time and keep people informed as we try and move through things? And then, also just do we lead with more humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve really learned over last few years is we each experience the world so differently. We employees who are remote. We have an incredible team Ukraine … employees who are on the front lines, who are literally at war. On other hand, you have people in different parts of the world 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 just apply a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I think it forced us, as a company, to build trust, because to be agile and flexible, and to 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 and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can you give an of something that you put into place, perhaps during pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust or create a greater sense of community or even to that there is no certainty, that is a muscle that you you’ll continue to use in the organization far into the future?
AS: There’s a couple of that we did. One — and we are a platform, so I obviously have to talk about video, but mean this sincerely — one of the hardest parts, when you’re all of disparate, is you lose context and you lose when you communicate. And we did make a concerted effort to 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 your face, and your hands your body and your emotions. And we did that through live streaming a lot of communications, a lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So send … I record my screen and just send a note out to people. Every new hire a video to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually replaced with just quick presentations. And actually, what that really did was allow the and the context to come through and I think that us a lot to, kind of, stay close. So was one, I think, really important thing.
Another important thing is, I think, just creating mechanisms to 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. so one of the things that we do at Vimeo is we try — do this in all of my town halls, we do it in a of meetings — is always talk about what’s working, what our top three things, and what isn’t working — yet. we’ve kind of created, I think, a framework that of takes the stigma away from talking about what’s 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 we need to pivot. And both of those, being 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 of our members of workforce live in a video world. They’re used to as a means of communication. Which brings me to next question. You’ve talked about how the organization has changed. do you see the workforce changing? What is different the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen Z 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 lot of the 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 a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is the line between your personal life and work 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 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 to happen. And I think that there is definitely sort of this — you know, we talk the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for saying the … we communicate and interact in our personal lives going to translate to work. And so I definitely think that’s an of opportunity.
The other thing I see from sort of generation, the newest generation coming into the workforce, is of, of course mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to really understand “why” behind things. And 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 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 something someone with formal authority told them to do it. They want do it because they understand why it matters, why it ties the mission. And I think that that forces leaders to really bring more the “why” into how we communicate and motivate people.
So those are two the things I see, and then, you know, the I think is just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all us, but particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking for and they want options and choices. And it’s not easy and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where I and orient it more to agility. How can we have approaches and principles and be committed to things, also know when to question, and when to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a examples of ways that you at Vimeo have tried to really be proactive when comes to addressing or understanding what your next generation employees are going to want, either in terms of purpose in terms of benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there or processes you’ve put in place that really speak this 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 way we’ve to listen and understand our workforce is very similar: it’s and As and engagement surveys, and things like that. And of the things that we’ve done, we have a and culture NPS, net promoter score, the same way we have our users, for our internal teams. But I would say one of the that we’ve really tried to do is appreciate that when we get from our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t look at the averages. You can’t look it all in totality and try and pull out an obvious “Oh, is 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, think for us, what we’ve really just tried to do is have a bunch of different mechanisms and then resist the urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this thing as action.” And it’s hard, and we’re still kind of figuring it out, but will tell you, some of the things that we’ve heard from employees changed our approach to hybrid work or travel or things like our 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 as, like, an average or the same. And for us, it’s been particularly stark because have offices and teams in so many different countries the differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, about the way we solve different things. And we used have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach in name of consistency and fairness, and what we found we have to be more localized. We really do. have to design mechanisms to support our teams in a different way, because their experiences and the world around 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 like every leader I know a perspective on whether they do open Q and or anonymous Q and A, or real-time Q and A. We’ve our approach there multiple times, and I know we will again, we’re still figuring out the right way to listen and have a dialogue a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers to the workplace for another 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 purpose they need, but also the training and the wisdom comes, oftentimes, from being in close proximity to a 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 I 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 eight countries. My executive team is entirely distributed. So I’ve really the benefits of being 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, particularly for youngest folks that are entering the workforce. So I think it’s challenge. One of the approaches that we’ve been taking, what’s sort of nice, is we’re modeling it at the top. if my entire executive team is distributed, that means I have to learn how to real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole set of executives who have just joined. We have sort of changed up the executive team entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve had deal with the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we call it our operating system — we’ve had 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 for 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 and spend time in a room with their team, do social activities, of those things. I don’t think they will go away, do I think they should. But, you know, candidly, it’s an area that I don’t 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 growth that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — tools that you mentioned at the very beginning of conversation, around video, can be really helpful there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations have really encouraged their young people to present, as a way of having 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 their ideas with a large group of people, but first, kind of through the fact-finding and the research, and then sharing their ideas. In earlier comment, you talked a little bit about mental illness and the things that people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During Black Lives Matter protests, we had a lot of people coming to the office feeling trauma, feeling 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 bring their whole selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, bring things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always the responsibility of a leader is to empower people to their best work and the responsibility of a company is to our people to do their best work. And so, of course, we have a real role to in supporting things like mental-health issues or burnout. And, you know, the I 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 mental-health resources or support or time off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. I think that’s important. And I always say, to so many of our managers … care. If we just care, a lot of things get easier. You don’t have to design a mechanisms if you just have the right people in place who care. the same time, I will say what we’re realizing now, in of this next phase, is that that’s a reactive approach and the root cause — that we can control at — 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 doing those things. And that, I think, actually where we should be spending more time — is how do we actually set the 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 too much going on. I don’t equipped to solve it.” Then, we should get into the “What is the there, and do we need to do things differently?” And, know, one 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 be stakeholders who 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 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 on — and it hasn’t changed — I think the best leaders and deliver results and treat people well. And I actually think, if you people well, with kindness and empathy, you will get results. And so, you know, for me, I think what I observed over the last years is — that part, I think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. were, I think, a lot of times when companies, did 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, any case. So, you know, I sort of see it — the way you channel how you are caring towards your employees and you are empathetic, always should be in service of helping people their best work, which will deliver results, which will good for the bottom line. And you have to believe that. You to be committed to that and if you use that in your decision-making, it should not be a trade-off. These are not exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking care of yourself during period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You you just had a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as 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 use a lot to myself is “two things can be true, both can be true.” say this a lot. And for me, I think of it as, like, “This is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public at the height of the and last year, market volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going a ton with post-pandemic, we have a team in Ukraine going through a war — all these things that 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 sort acknowledging both of those things has helped me a lot. The 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 believe so deeply that what Vimeo is doing is important and for the world. And if I have passion, I have energy and I will — I can kind of move through anything. I have find joy in my team. I feel like, especially in times, I look back at my career and actually, some of most fulfilling times in work were when — in hardest business situations. But it’s because it brought a group of people together all on one team, so I think that’s been, you know, a really big part of it. then, yeah, like, you have to be a little selfish sometimes, and take of yourself. And I am really fortunate. I think I have great support network around me and I do … husband and I have a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear a couple of hours. I just disappear and I around the city and I listen to my music and do whatever I need 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 describe it today. It’s in office a couple of days, work from home a of other days. Tell us a little bit more what you could potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I think the of an office as a time and place completely goes away. And I think it’s really going be people are going to want to work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the 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 on this date” — I think that’s going to go away. And I think what you’re going find is more and more work, particularly from knowledge workers, going to be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration will happen and we will be using 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 think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because I think it’s going to require — you think about the skill set to be a global CEO 30 years ago what that will require now — I think in the future … skill set is going to be like, “How do you communicate diverse, global audiences and employees across time zones in way that is effective, that provides context and alignment scale? How do you organize programs, whether it’s compensation, it’s, you know, training?” All of that is going to look very different. I think the ultimate thing you’ll see is just … were these constraints that we’ve lived with, whether it time or place or budget, in some cases. And think those constraints are going to go away. And promise is that if we are flexible and smart we use technology in the right way, that we’ll actually away a much more evolved and efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think you just showed us some the passion that you’ve talked about as being the thing that gives you energy to lead organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being here today.
AS: you. This was great.