Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m glad you’re here with us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, is great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, you lead workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you have creatives, you have finance people, you have technologists. I’m going to start with a really easy question: what was it like to manage diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very return to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was really challenging. You know, think the only constant has been change. And as leader, you obviously — you have a workforce that’s looking certainty, and they’re looking to control what’s happening around them. I think what we all found, as leaders, no matter company you were … responsible for, was that you couldn’t offer certainty, you couldn’t always control the environment and the things you. And so, you know, for me, it was really about agility. How do we stay flexible a team? How do we communicate in real time and people informed as we try and move through things? And then, also just how we lead with more humanity? You know, for Vimeo, of the things I’ve really learned over the last years is we each experience the world so differently. We employees who are remote. We have an incredible team in Ukraine … employees who are the front lines, who are literally at war. On the other hand, you have people in different parts the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, so I think it was really just — the part was not being able to give everyone certainty, not being able to just a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I ultimately think forced us, as a company, to 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 with a culture that is more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can you an example of something that you put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance communications build trust or create a greater sense of community or even to that there is no certainty, that is a muscle that 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 are a video platform, so I obviously have talk about video, but I mean this sincerely — one of hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is you context and you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make a effort to move away from email and chat, text-based communication, as much as possible, and actually try, particularly for leadership team, when we were communicating, to do it with face, and your hands and your body and your emotions. And we did that through live a lot of communications, recording a lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. I send … I record my screen and just a note out to people. Every new hire does video to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of meetings we’ve actually replaced with just quick video presentations. actually, what that really did was allow the humanity the context to come through and I think that helped us a lot to, kind of, close. So that was one, I think, really important thing.
Another thing is, I think, just creating mechanisms to make easier to talk about when things aren’t working, because a critical of being agile is recognizing we have an area that isn’t working. so one of the things that we do at is we try — I do this 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 created, I think, a framework that sort of takes stigma away from talking about what’s not working. And when you make normalized and comfortable for people, I feel like it’s allowed to be more open, as an organization, about what do we need to change, what we need to pivot. And both of those, being more video-first in our and being more transparent and normalizing what’s not working, I think has really helpful, and certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: love that advice about being video-first. So many of our members our workforce live in a video world. They’re used to as a means of communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve about how the organization has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is different the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave Gen Z coming into the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of the things we think about at Vimeo a lot is a of the mechanisms and communication modes that we still today, they’re really antiquated. They were designed for a totally different and a totally different generation. But I see a lot of differences. One of them, think, is the line between your personal life and work is definitely blending. … If you think about your personal — look at TikTok. This generation is used to consuming content, learning, engaging, in very 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 not going to happen, right? Or you miss the meeting, and you have to watch Zoom recording of a three-hour meeting — that’s just not going happen. And so I think that there is definitely of this — you know, we talk about the “consumerization enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for saying the … we communicate 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 from sort of the generation, the newest coming into the workforce, is sort of, of course mission-driven, but I think there’s desire to really understand the “why” behind things. And one of communication mantras is we never talk about the “what” the “why.” And I think there’s a desire to — the that, well, there’s a hierarchy, or “My boss told me that is what we’re going to do” or — that, I think, is increasingly moving away, and people, they don’t want to do something because someone with formal authority told to do it. They want to do it because understand why it matters, why it ties to the mission. I think that that forces leaders to really bring more of the “why” into we communicate and motivate people.
So those are two of the I see, and then, you know, the third I think is flexibility. I think — and this is true of all us, but particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking for flexibility and they options and choices. And it’s not always easy and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where try 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 to pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few 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 or in terms of benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or you’ve put in place that 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 our workforce is very similar: it’s Q and As and engagement surveys, and 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 do is appreciate that when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 … you can’t look at the averages. You can’t at it all in totality and try and pull an obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because you actually — when you really dig into it truly listen and do focus groups and talk to — 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 then resist the urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this is what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this 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 changed our approach to hybrid work travel or even things like our approach to compensation our approach to DE and I. So I think it’s more just like said, that agile listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, but not everything as, like, an average or the same. And for us, it’s been particularly stark because we offices and teams in so many different countries and differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, about the way we solve different things. And used to 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. We have design mechanisms to support our teams in a very different way, because their experiences and the around them is quite different.
So I think that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, has involved a 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 like every I know has a perspective on whether they do Q and A or anonymous Q and A, or real-time Q 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: want 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 not just providing our employees with the flexibility and the purpose that they need, but also the training and wisdom that comes, oftentimes, from being in close proximity a mentor or to somebody who’s done the job for many more years. is your philosophy and take on making sure that knowledge is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t know that will sort of have a solution for. I think about that the time. We have a very distributed workforce at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My team is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits being able to have a distributed workforce and being able to attract 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 the youngest folks that entering the 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 entire executive team is distributed, that means I to 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 the executive team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve to deal with the same challenges. And we’ve had to — we call it our operating system — we’ve to design an operating system, as an executive team, how we’re going to work together in that environment. do we share real-time feedback? How do we create the right communication loops? And so I think, my perspective, it’s more we have to be able do it ourselves and model it and then, I think it’s a more proven mechanism for young people. will say, like many companies … I do believe that in-person collaboration is really important learning. We do have — we bring people into office. If you’re remote, we ask folks to come in and spend in a room with their team, do social activities, all those things. I don’t think they will go away, nor do I think should. But, you know, candidly, it’s an area that I don’t think we’ve figured out perfectly and I think it’s really critical that as leaders, we that, so that this next generation is able to get same growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the tools that you at the very beginning of our conversation, around video, can be really there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations that have really encouraged young people to present, as a way of having to 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 large group of people, but first, kind going through the fact-finding and the research, and then sharing their ideas. an 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 the Black Lives Matter protests, we had lot of people coming to the office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal bubble to the surface. I’m wondering if you can share a little bit about you deal with this increasing personal — you know, people 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 of a leader is to empower people to do their work and the responsibility of a company is to empower our people to do their best work. so, of course, we have a real role to play in supporting things like mental-health issues burnout. And, you know, the way I think, like companies, the way we initially probably sought to do that more, you know, you’re seeing a problem and you’re reacting trying to provide mental-health resources or support or time off. And, think — and 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 if just have the right people in place who care. the same time, I will say what we’re realizing now, in sort this next phase, is that that’s a reactive approach and actually root cause — that we can control at Vimeo — the root cause of a lot of stress and is sometimes people either don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking to do too many things or they don’t feel they’re supported in doing those things. And that, I think, is where we should be spending more time — is how do we actually set the right prioritization focus. There’s some issue there, right? There’s a root there that’s a “Oh, I feel like I’m stressed because there’s too much on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, we should into the “What is the detail there, and do we need do things differently?” And, you know, one of our at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think there are going to be stakeholders who say, you know, “Out all of this touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. Where are my results?”
AS: Absolutely. think the pendulum has already swung pretty clearly. I mean, work in SAS, software as a service, so we went from “growth at all cost” to “profitability,” you know, pendulum swing. My on this — and it hasn’t changed — I think the best leaders and cultures deliver results and people well. And I actually think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, you will get results. And so, you know, for me, I think what I observed over the few years is — that part, I think, hasn’t and shouldn’t change. There were, I think, a lot of times companies, we did things because maybe it was lip service or felt pressured. And that’s not going to be sustainable. that’s not what — ultimately, that’s not what people need, any case. So, you know, I sort of see as — the way you channel how you are caring towards your and how you are empathetic, always should be in service of helping people do best work, which will deliver results, which will be good for the bottom line. And you have believe that. You have to be committed to that and if you 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 yourself during this period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? mentioned you just had a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, you practice some self-care or how do you make that you’re getting the balance you need to be the most leader you can be?
AS: I think — recently, the phrase I use a lot to is “two things can be true, both can be true.” say this a lot. And for me, I think it as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We public at the height of the pandemic and last year, volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through ton with post-pandemic, we have a team in Ukraine 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? And so, I for me, it’s sort of acknowledging both of those things has helped a lot. The way I’ve tried to kind of lead, has — it’s always been this way, which is, for me, it’s have to have passion. I have to have passion. I have to believe so deeply that what is doing is important and matters for the world. And if I have passion, I have energy and I will — I can kind of move through anything. have to find 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 brought a group of people together on one team, and so I think that’s been, you know, a really big part of it. then, yeah, like, you have to be a little sometimes, and 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 on Sundays, I for a couple of hours. I just disappear and I around the city and I listen to my music and whatever 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 than how we it today. It’s basically in office a couple of days, work from a couple of other days. Tell us a little bit more about what you could see that evolving into.
AS: I think the idea of an office as a time 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 to change. And then the idea of like “I’m going to work on time zone” or “I’m going to attend this meeting that’s scheduled this date” — I think that’s going to go away. And think what you’re going to find is more and more work, particularly from knowledge workers, is going to done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration will happen asynchronously and we will be using 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. I think it’s going to require — if you think about the skill set to a global CEO 30 years ago versus what that will require now — I think in the … the skill set is going to be like, “How do communicate with diverse, global audiences and employees across time zones a 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 look very different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll see is just … there were constraints that we’ve lived with, whether it was time or or budget, in some cases. And I think those constraints going to go away. And the promise is that we are flexible and smart and we use technology in 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 being the thing that gives you energy to lead that of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. was great.