Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so you’re here with us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, you lead workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you have creatives, you have people, you have technologists. So I’m going to start with a really easy question: what was it like manage this diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very return to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it really challenging. You know, I think the only constant been change. And as a leader, you obviously — you have a workforce that’s for certainty, and they’re looking to control what’s happening around them. I think what we all found, as leaders, no matter what company were … responsible for, was 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 a team? How do we communicate in real time and keep people informed as we try move through things? And then, also just how do lead with more humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve really learned over the few years is we each experience the world so differently. We have who are remote. We have an incredible team in Ukraine … employees who are on the front lines, who are at war. On the other hand, you have people different parts of the world who are experiencing mental-health or burnout, and so I think it was really just — the hardest part not being able to give everyone certainty, not being able to just apply a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. I ultimately think it forced us, as a company, to build more trust, because to agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, you to trust each other. And so, I’m sort of optimistic actually we’re emerging from this time with a culture that more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can you give an example of something that put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust or a greater sense of community or even to communicate that there is no certainty, that is a that you think you’ll continue to use in the organization into the future?
AS: There’s a couple of things that we did. One — we are a video platform, so I obviously have talk about video, but I mean this sincerely — of the hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, you lose context and you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make a concerted effort move away from email and chat, text-based communication, as much as possible, and actually try, particularly our leadership team, when we were communicating, to do with your face, and your hands and your body and your emotions. we did that through live streaming a lot of communications, recording a lot of videos. sent asynchronous video messages. So I send … I record my and just send a note out to people. Every hire does a video to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually replaced just quick video presentations. And actually, what that really did was the humanity and the context to come through and think that helped us a lot to, kind of, stay close. So that was one, I think, really thing.
Another important thing is, I think, just creating mechanisms to make it easier to talk when things aren’t working, because a critical part of being agile is recognizing have an area that isn’t working. And so one of the things that do at Vimeo is we try — I do this in all my town halls, we do it in a lot of meetings — is always about what’s working, what are our top three things, and what isn’t — 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 people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, an organization, about what do we need to change, do we need to pivot. And both of those, more video-first in our communication and being more transparent and normalizing what’s working, I think has been really helpful, and certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: I that advice about being video-first. So many of our members of workforce live in a video world. They’re used to video as means of communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve talked about how the has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is with the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen Z coming into the workplace?
AS: think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of the things 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 between your personal and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about personal life — look at TikTok. This generation is used consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. And if they then have to come work and to be trained on a job, read 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 going to happen. And so I think that there is sort of this — you know, we talk about the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just words for saying the way … we communicate and interact in our personal lives is going to translate work. And so I definitely think that’s an area opportunity.
The other thing I see from sort of the generation, the newest generation coming the workforce, is sort of, of course mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire really understand the “why” behind things. And one of our communication mantras is we talk about the “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s a desire — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, or “My boss told me that is what 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 because they understand why it matters, why it ties to the mission. I think that that forces leaders to really bring of the “why” into how we communicate and motivate people.
So those are of the things I see, and then, you know, third I think is just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all of us, particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking flexibility and they want options and choices. And it’s always easy and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but is where I try and orient it more to agility. can we have approaches and principles and be committed to things, but know when to question, and when to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of ways you at Vimeo have tried to really be proactive when comes to addressing or understanding what your next generation of are going to want, either in terms of purpose or in terms benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there programs processes you’ve put in place that really speak to this big change we’re seeing in terms of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all listening, right? And I 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 things like that. And of the things that we’ve done, we have a people and NPS, net promoter score, the same way we have for our users, for internal teams. But I would say one of the things we’ve really tried to do is appreciate that when we 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 out an obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what actually — when you really dig into it and truly listen and do groups and talk to people — 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 just tried to do is have a bunch different listening mechanisms and then resist the urge to pull, like, “Oh, this is 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, I will tell you, some of the things that we’ve heard from employees changed our approach to hybrid work or travel or even things our approach to compensation or our approach to DE and I. So think it’s more just like I 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 stark because we have 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 we used have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach the name of consistency and fairness, and what we found is have to be more localized. We really do. We have to design mechanisms to support our teams in 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 of trying things, it not working, and changing them. And a great example is Q and A. I feel like every leader I know a perspective on whether they do open Q and A or anonymous and A, or real-time Q and A. We’ve changed our approach there times, and I know we will again, because we’re still out the right way to listen and have a with a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay newcomers to the workplace for just another moment, because another thing I hear from of my generation and older is a concern about sure that we are not just providing our youngest employees with the flexibility and purpose that they need, but also the training and 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 knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t know that everyone sort of have a solution for. I think about that all the time. We have a very distributed at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My executive is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits being able to have a distributed workforce and being to attract talent and just be more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack the same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for youngest folks that are entering the workforce. So I it’s a challenge. One of the approaches that we’ve taking, and what’s sort of nice, is we’re modeling it at the top. So if entire executive team is distributed, that means I have to learn how provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole set new executives who have just joined. We have sort changed up the executive team almost entirely in the last twelve months. I’ve had 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, for how we’re going work together in that environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do we create the right loops? And so I think, from my perspective, it’s more have to be able to do it ourselves and model it then, I think it’s a more proven mechanism for young people. I will say, like companies … I do believe that in-person collaboration is important for learning. We do have — we bring people into an office. 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 they will 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 I think it’s 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 — the tools that you mentioned at the very beginning our conversation, around video, can be 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 go out and the information they need. And then, because we have video tools available us now, you know, they have an opportunity to share their ideas with a large group people, but first, kind of going through the fact-finding the research, and then sharing their ideas. In an comment, you talked a little bit about mental illness and the different things people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During the Black Lives Matter protests, had a lot of people coming to the office feeling trauma, and feeling really issues bubble to the surface. I’m wondering if you can a little bit about how you deal with this increasing personal — you know, when people bring their selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, they bring things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: … I’ve always thought the responsibility of a leader is to empower people to do best work and the responsibility of a company is empower our people to 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, the I think, like many companies, the way we initially sought to do that was more, you know, you’re seeing problem and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health or support or time off. And, I think — empathy, just empathy. I think that’s really important. And I say, to so many of our managers … just care. If we just care, a lot of get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred if you just have the right people in place care. At the same time, I will say what we’re now, in sort of this next phase, is that that’s a approach and actually the root cause — 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 to do 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 the right prioritization and 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 much going on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, we should into the “What is the detail there, and do need to do things differently?” And, you know, one our themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there are going to stakeholders who say, you know, “Out with all of touchy-feely, the 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 already went from “growth all cost” to “profitability,” you know, pendulum swing. My perspective this — and it hasn’t changed — I think the best and cultures 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, you know, for me, think what I observed over the last few years — that part, I think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. There were, I think, lot of times when companies, we did things because it was lip service or we felt pressured. And that’s not going be sustainable. But that’s not what — ultimately, that’s not what people need, any case. So, you know, I sort of see it as — the way you channel you are caring towards your employees and how you are empathetic, should be in service of helping people do their best work, which will results, which will be good for the bottom line. And you have to believe that. You have be committed 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, have you been taking care of yourself during this period tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You mentioned you just a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, a leader, do you practice some self-care or how do you make sure that you’re the balance you need to be the most effective leader can be?
AS: I think — recently, the phrase I a lot to myself is “two things can be true, both can true.” I say this a lot. And for me, I think of it as, like, “This job hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public at the height the pandemic and last year, market volatility has been tremendous. know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, we have team in Ukraine going through a war — all these that have happened. And so, it’s a hard job, and it’s an incredibly privileged job. It’s 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 have to have passion. have to have passion. I have to believe so deeply that what is doing is important and matters for the world. And if have passion, I have energy and then I will — I can of move through anything. I have to find joy my team. I feel like, especially in hard times, I look back at my career actually, some of my most fulfilling times in work were — in the hardest business situations. But it’s because it a group of people together all on one team, and I think that’s been, you know, a really big of it. And then, yeah, like, you have to be a little selfish sometimes, and 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, disappear for a couple of hours. I just disappear and I walk around the city 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 in office a couple of days, work from home a couple of days. Tell us a little bit more about what you potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I think the idea of an office as a and place completely goes away. And I think it’s really to be people are going to want to work from anywhere, anywhere the world. Even the concept of where you’re located going to change. And then the idea of like “I’m going 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 going 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 using tools and technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable that at scale among many people, in the world. And then I think leadership, leaders are going look different. Because I think it’s going to require — if you think about the skill to be a global CEO 30 years ago versus what that require now — I think in the future … the skill is going to be like, “How do you communicate diverse, global audiences and employees across time zones in a way that effective, that provides context and alignment at scale? How you organize programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All that is going to look very different. But I think the thing you’ll see is just … there were these that we’ve lived with, whether it was time or place or budget, in some cases. I think those constraints are going to go away. the promise is that if we are flexible and smart and we use in the right way, that we’ll actually come away 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 gives you energy to lead that organization of 1,300 worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. was great.