Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to 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 start with really easy question: what was it like to manage this workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, it a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was really challenging. You know, I think the only 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 I what we all found, as leaders, no matter what company you were … responsible for, that you couldn’t offer certainty, and you couldn’t always control the environment and the things you. And so, you know, for me, it was really agility. How do we stay flexible as a team? How do we communicate in time and keep people informed as we try and move through things? And then, just how do we lead with more humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one the things I’ve really learned over the last few years is we each experience world so differently. We have employees who are remote. We an incredible team in Ukraine … employees who are on the front lines, are literally at war. On the other hand, you have people in different parts the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, and so I think it was really just — hardest part was not being able to give everyone certainty, being able to just apply a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I think it forced us, as a company, to build more trust, because to agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, you have to trust each other. so, I’m sort of optimistic that actually we’re emerging from time with a culture that is more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can give an example of something that you put into place, perhaps the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust or create a greater of community or even to communicate that there is certainty, that is a muscle that you think you’ll continue to use in the organization far into future?
AS: There’s a couple of things that we did. One — and we are a video platform, I obviously have to talk about video, but I mean sincerely — one of the hardest parts, when you’re sort of disparate, is you lose context and you lose nuance you communicate. And we did make a concerted effort to away from email and chat, text-based communication, as much possible, and actually try, particularly for our leadership team, we were communicating, to do it with your face, your hands and your body and your emotions. And we did that through live a lot of communications, recording a lot of videos. sent asynchronous video messages. So I send … I my screen and just send a note out to people. new hire does a video to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve 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 a 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, because critical part of being agile is recognizing we have an area that isn’t working. And one of the things that we do at Vimeo is we try — I do in all of my town halls, we do it in lot of meetings — is always talk about what’s working, what are our top things, and what isn’t working — yet. And we’ve kind of created, I think, a framework that of takes the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. And when make that normalized and comfortable for people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be open, as an organization, about what do we need to change, do we need to pivot. And both of those, being more video-first in communication and being more transparent and normalizing what’s not working, think has been really helpful, and certainly something we’re forward.
SM: I 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 me my next question. You’ve talked about how the organization has changed. do you see the workforce changing? What is different with the young millennials, and even, now, first wave of Gen Z coming into the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, know, one of the things that we think about at Vimeo a lot is a lot of the and communication modes that we still use today, they’re really antiquated. They 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 your personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If think about your personal life — look at TikTok. This generation is to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. if they then have to come to work and to trained on a job, read a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? Or if you the meeting, and you have to watch the Zoom of a three-hour meeting — that’s just not going to happen. And so I think that is definitely sort of this — you know, we talk about the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those just fancy 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 of the generation, the newest generation coming into the workforce, is sort of, of mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to really understand the “why” behind things. And one of communication mantras is we 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 boss told me that this what we’re going to do” or — that, I think, is increasingly away, and people, they don’t just want to do something because someone formal authority told them to do it. They want do it because they understand why it matters, why it ties to the mission. I think that that forces leaders to really bring more of “why” into how we communicate and motivate people.
So those are two 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 and want options and choices. And it’s not always easy and to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try orient it more to agility. How can we have approaches and principles be committed to things, but also know when to question, and to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a examples of ways that you at Vimeo have tried to really be proactive when it to addressing or understanding what your next generation of employees are to want, either in terms of purpose or in of benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or processes you’ve put in place really speak to this big sea change we’re seeing in terms of values from workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all about listening, right? And think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried to listen and understand workforce is very similar: it’s Q and As and surveys, and things like that. And some of the things we’ve done, we have a people and culture NPS, net score, the same way we have for our users, for our internal teams. But I say one of the things that we’ve really tried to do is appreciate that we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t at the averages. You can’t look at it all in totality and try and pull out an “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — when you dig into it and truly listen and do focus groups talk to people — what you’ll find is actually there’s very different experiences and desires your employees. And so, I think for us, what we’ve really just tried to do is a bunch of different listening mechanisms and then resist the urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, is what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this thing the 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 have changed our approach to hybrid work or travel or things like our approach to compensation or our approach to DE and I. So think it’s more just like I said, that agile listening, really understanding what’s happening, but not treating everything as, like, an average or same. And for us, it’s been particularly stark because we have and teams in so many different countries and the differences, they’re substantial. They’re substantial, about the way we solve different things. And we used have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach the name of consistency and fairness, and what we is we have to be more localized. We really do. We have to mechanisms to support our teams in a very different way, their experiences and the world around them is quite different.
So I 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 a lot of trying things, not working, and changing them. And a great example our Q and A. I feel like every leader I has a perspective on whether they do open Q and A or anonymous Q and A, or real-time and A. We’ve changed our approach there multiple times, and I know will again, because we’re still figuring out the right way to listen and a dialogue with a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers to the workplace just another moment, because another thing I hear from CEOs of my generation and older is concern about making sure that we are not just our youngest employees with the flexibility and the purpose that they need, but also the and the wisdom that 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 sure that knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: I it’s a major challenge that I 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 executive team is distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being able to a distributed workforce and being able to attract talent and just more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for 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 sort of nice, is we’re it at the top. So if my entire executive is distributed, that means I have to learn how provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole set of new executives have just joined. We have sort of changed up the team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve to deal with the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we 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? do we create the right communication loops? And so think, from my perspective, it’s more we have to be able do it ourselves and model it and then, I think it’s more proven mechanism for young people. I will say, many companies … I do believe that in-person collaboration really important for learning. We do have — we bring people an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks to come and spend time in a room with their team, do activities, all of those things. I don’t think they will go away, nor do I they should. But, you know, candidly, it’s an area that don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly and I think it’s critical that as leaders, we do that, so that this next generation able to get the same growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s — the tools that you mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation, around video, can really helpful there. I’ve heard of a number of that have really encouraged their young people to present, as a way of having to out and find the information they need. And then, because we have video available 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 the research, and then sharing ideas. In an earlier comment, you talked a little bit about mental and the different things that people are bringing to work, whether is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During the Black Lives Matter protests, we had a lot of people coming the office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble to the surface. I’m wondering you can share a little bit about how you with this increasing personal — you know, when people bring whole selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, they bring things, parts themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always thought the of a leader is to empower people to do best work and the responsibility of a company is to empower our people do their best work. And so, of course, we have real role to play in supporting things like mental-health issues or burnout. And, you know, way I think, like many companies, the way we initially probably to do that was more, you know, you’re seeing a problem and you’re reacting trying to provide mental-health resources or support or time off. And, I think — empathy, just empathy. I think that’s really important. And always say, to so many of our managers … just care. we just care, a lot of things get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred mechanisms you just have the right people in place who care. At 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 cause of a lot of stress and burnout is people either don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking people to too many things or they don’t feel like they’re supported doing those things. And that, I think, is actually where we should spending more time — is how do we actually set 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 there’s too much going on. I don’t feel equipped solve it.” Then, we should get into the “What is the detail there, do we need to do things differently?” And, you know, one of our themes at this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there are 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. think the pendulum has already swung pretty clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, software 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 — think the best leaders and cultures deliver results and treat people well. And I actually think, if treat people well, with kindness and empathy, you will get better results. And so, you know, me, I think what I observed over the last few years is — that part, think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. There were, I think, a lot of times when companies, we did things 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 as — way you channel how you are caring towards your employees and how you are empathetic, always should be service of helping people do their best work, which will deliver results, which will be for the bottom line. And you have to believe that. You to be committed to that and if you use consistently in your decision-making, it should not be a trade-off. are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you taking care of yourself during this period of tremendous and change, but also growth? You mentioned you just had a baby. There’s a lot on shoulders. How, as a leader, do you practice some self-care how do you make sure that you’re getting the balance need to be the most effective leader you can be?
AS: I — recently, the phrase I use a lot to is “two things can be true, both can be true.” I say this a lot. for me, I think of it as, like, “This job is hard, it’s gotten harder.” We went public at the height of the pandemic last year, market volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, we have team in Ukraine going through 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? so, I think for me, it’s sort of acknowledging 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 have to have passion. I have to have passion. have to believe so deeply that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters the world. And if I have passion, I have energy and then I will — I kind of move through anything. I have to find in my team. I feel like, especially in hard times, look back at my career and actually, some of my fulfilling times in work were when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s because it brought 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 I am really fortunate. think I have a great support network around me and I do … My husband I have a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. just disappear and I walk around the city and I listen to my music and do whatever I to do, and that’s really important.
SM: So you talked how hybrid work is going to look very different the future than how we describe it today. It’s basically office a couple of days, work from home a couple of other days. us a little bit more about what you could potentially see evolving into.
AS: I think the idea of an office as a and place completely goes away. And I think it’s really going to be people are to want to work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the of where you’re located is going to change. And then the idea of like “I’m to work on this time zone” or “I’m going to this meeting that’s scheduled on this date” — I that’s going to go away. And I think what you’re 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 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. And then think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because I think it’s to require — if you think about the skill to be a global CEO 30 years ago versus that will require now — I think in the … the skill set is going to be like, “How 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 you programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All of that is going to very different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll see just … there were these constraints that we’ve lived with, whether it was time or place or budget, in cases. And I think those constraints are going to go away. And the is that if we are flexible and smart and we use technology the right way, that we’ll actually come away a much more evolved efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think you just showed some of the passion that you’ve talked about as the thing that gives you energy to lead that organization of 1,300 worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. This great.