Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here with today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to be here.
SM: Vimeo, you lead a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — 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 office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it really challenging. You know, I think the only constant has change. And as a leader, you obviously — you have a that’s looking for certainty, and they’re looking to control what’s around them. And I think what we all found, leaders, no matter what company you were … responsible for, that you couldn’t offer certainty, and you couldn’t always the environment and the things around you. And so, know, for me, it was really about agility. How do we stay flexible as a team? How we communicate in real time and keep people informed we try and move through things? And then, also just how do we lead with more humanity? know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve really over the last few years is we each experience the so differently. We have employees who are remote. We have an team in Ukraine … employees who are on the front lines, who are literally war. On the other hand, you have people in different parts of the world who are experiencing mental-health or burnout, and so I think it was really just — the part was not being able to give everyone certainty, not 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 be agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, have to trust each other. And so, I’m sort of optimistic actually we’re emerging from this time with a culture is more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can you give example of something that you put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust create a greater sense of community or even to communicate that there is no certainty, is a muscle that you think you’ll continue to use in the 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 I mean this sincerely — one of the parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is you lose context you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make a concerted to move away from email and chat, text-based communication, as as possible, and 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 video messages. So I send … I record my screen and send a note out to people. Every new hire does a video to welcome introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually replaced with just video presentations. And actually, what that really did was allow the humanity and the context to through and I think that helped 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 make 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. so one of the things that we do at Vimeo is try — I do this in all of my 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 that of takes the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. And when you make that and comfortable for people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, as an organization, what do we need to change, what do we need to pivot. And of those, being more video-first in our 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 of our members of our workforce live in a video world. They’re used to video a means of communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve talked how the organization has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is different the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen coming into the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, know, one of the things that we think about at a lot is a lot of the mechanisms and modes that we still use today, they’re really antiquated. were designed for a totally different environment and a totally generation. But I see a lot of differences. One of them, think, is the line between your personal life and work life definitely blending. … If you think about your personal life — at TikTok. This generation is used to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. And if they have to come to work and to be trained on job, read a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going happen, right? Or if you miss the meeting, and you have to watch Zoom recording of a three-hour meeting — that’s just not to happen. And so I think that there is sort of 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 I definitely think that’s an area of opportunity.
The thing I see from sort of the generation, the newest 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 the “why.” And think there’s a desire to — the idea that, well, there’s hierarchy, or “My boss told me that this is we’re going to do” or — that, I think, is moving away, and people, they don’t just want to do because someone with formal authority told them to do it. They want to do it because they why it matters, why it ties to the mission. And I think that forces leaders to really bring more of the “why” how we communicate and motivate people.
So those are two of the things see, and then, you know, the third I think is flexibility. I think — and this is true of all of us, but the younger generation — I think they’re looking for flexibility and they want and choices. And it’s not always easy and feasible to ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try and orient it to agility. How can we have approaches and principles and committed to things, but also know when to question, and when actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of that you at Vimeo have tried to really be proactive when it comes to addressing understanding what your next generation of employees are going to want, 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 terms of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s about listening, right? And I think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried to listen understand our 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, promoter score, the same way we have for our users, for our internal teams. But I would one of the things that we’ve really tried to do is that when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … can’t look at the averages. You can’t look at all in totality and try and pull out an obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because you actually — when you really dig into it and truly and do focus groups and talk to people — what you’ll find is actually there’s very experiences and desires among your employees. And so, I think us, what we’ve really just tried to do is have bunch of different listening mechanisms and then resist the urge 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 of figuring it out, but I will tell you, some of things that we’ve heard from employees have changed our approach to work or travel or even things like our approach to compensation or our approach DE and I. So I think it’s more just I said, that agile listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, not treating everything as, like, an average or the same. 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 really substantial, about the way we solve different things. we used to have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach in the name of consistency fairness, and what we found is we have to more localized. We really do. We have to design mechanisms to support our in a very different way, because their experiences and the world around them is quite different.
So think that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, it has involved a 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 is our Q and A. I like every leader I know has a perspective on whether they do open Q A or 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 out the way to listen and have a dialogue with a diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers to the for just another moment, because another thing I hear from CEOs of my generation and is a concern about making sure that we are not just providing our youngest employees with the and the purpose 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 transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t that everyone will sort of have a solution for. I think that all the time. We have a very distributed at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My executive team entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being able to have a distributed workforce and able to attract talent and just be more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, think, a lack of the same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the youngest folks 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 modeling at the top. So if my entire executive team is distributed, that means I have learn how to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole of new executives who have just joined. We have sort of changed up the executive team almost entirely the last twelve months. So I’ve had to deal the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we call it our operating — we’ve had to design an operating system, as an executive team, for how we’re going to work in that environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do we create the right communication loops? so I think, from my perspective, it’s more we to be able to do it ourselves and model and then, I think it’s a more proven mechanism for young people. will say, like many companies … I do believe in-person collaboration is really important for learning. We do have — bring people into an office. If you’re remote, we folks to come in and spend time in a room their team, do social activities, all of those things. don’t think they 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 and think it’s really critical that as leaders, we do that, so that this next generation is able to the same growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — tools that 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, as a way of having go out and find the information they need. And then, we have video tools available to us now, you know, have an opportunity to share their ideas with a group of people, but first, kind of going through fact-finding and the research, and then sharing their ideas. In an earlier comment, talked a little bit about mental illness and the different things that people are bringing work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During the 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 if 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 things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always thought responsibility of a leader is to empower people to do their best work and the responsibility a company is to empower our people to do their best work. And so, of course, we a real role to play in supporting things like mental-health or burnout. And, you know, the way I think, 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 provide mental-health resources or support or time off. And, I — and empathy, just empathy. I think that’s really important. And I always say, to many of our managers … just care. If we care, a lot of things get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred if you just have the right people in place who care. At same time, I 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 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 actually where we be spending more time — is how do we actually the right prioritization and focus. There’s some issue there, right? There’s a root cause there that’s “Oh, I feel like I’m stressed because 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 Vimeo year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, you think that there are going to be stakeholders who say, you know, “Out with all this touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. Where are my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think the pendulum has swung pretty clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, as a service, so we already went from “growth at all cost” to “profitability,” know, pendulum swing. My perspective on this — and 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 better results. And so, know, for me, I think what I observed over the last few is — that part, I think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. 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 be sustainable. But that’s not what — ultimately, that’s what people need, in any case. So, you know, 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 will be for the bottom line. And you have to believe that. You have to be to that and if you use that consistently in your decision-making, it should be a trade-off. These are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have been taking care of yourself during this period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You mentioned you had a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, do practice some self-care or how do you make sure that you’re getting balance you need to be the most effective leader can be?
AS: I think — recently, the phrase use a lot to myself is “two things can true, both can be true.” I say this a lot. for me, I think of it as, like, “This is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public at height of the pandemic and last year, market volatility been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, have a team in Ukraine going through a war — all things that have happened. And so, it’s a hard job, 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 way I’ve tried to of lead, has been — it’s always been this way, which is, for me, it’s I have to have passion. have to have passion. I have to believe so deeply 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 anything. I have to find joy in my team. feel like, especially in hard times, I look back my career and actually, some of my most fulfilling times work were when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s 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, take care of yourself. And I am really fortunate. I think I have a great support around me and I do … My husband and I have a deal, where Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. I just disappear and I around the city and I listen to my music and do I need to do, and that’s really important.
SM: So you talked about how work is going to look very different in the future how we describe it today. It’s basically in office couple of days, work from home a couple of 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 goes away. And I think it’s really going 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 idea of like “I’m going to work on this time zone” “I’m going to attend this meeting that’s scheduled on this date” — I that’s going to go away. And I think what you’re going to find is more and more work, particularly knowledge workers, is going to be done anywhere, anytime. Communication collaboration will happen asynchronously and we will be using tools and — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable that at scale among people, anywhere in the world. And then I think leadership, leaders are going to 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 — I think in the future … skill set is going to be like, “How do communicate with 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 very different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll is just … there were these constraints that we’ve with, whether it was time or place or budget, in some cases. And think those constraints are going to go away. And the promise that if we are flexible and smart and 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 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 much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. This great.