Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here with today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, lead a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you creatives, you have finance people, you have technologists. So I’m going to start a really easy question: what was it like to manage diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very fraught to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, was really challenging. You know, I think the only 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 around them. I think what we all found, as leaders, no matter company you were … responsible for, was that you couldn’t offer certainty, and couldn’t always control the environment and the things around you. so, you know, for me, it was really about agility. do we stay flexible as a team? How do we communicate in real 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, of the things I’ve really learned over the last years is we each experience the world so differently. We have employees who remote. We have an incredible team in Ukraine … who are on the front lines, who are literally war. On the other hand, you have people in different parts of the who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, and so think it was really just — the hardest part was not able to give everyone certainty, not being able to just apply one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I ultimately think it us, as a company, to build more trust, because to be and flexible, and to lead with humanity, you have 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 an example of something that you put into place, perhaps the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust or create a greater sense community or even to communicate that there is no certainty, that a muscle that you think you’ll continue to use in the organization far the future?
AS: There’s a couple of things that we did. One — and we are video platform, so 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 when you communicate. And we did make concerted 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 your face, and your hands and your body and your emotions. And we that through live streaming a lot of communications, recording lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So I send … record my screen and just send a note out to people. Every new hire does a video 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 humanity the context to come through and I think that helped a lot to, kind of, stay close. So that 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 part of being agile is recognizing we have an that isn’t working. And so one of the things we do at Vimeo is we try — I do in all of my town halls, we do it a lot of meetings — is always talk 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 for people, I like it’s allowed us to be more open, as 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, certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: I love that advice about being video-first. many of our members of our workforce live in a world. They’re used to video as a means of communication. brings me to my next question. You’ve talked about how the organization has changed. How do see the workforce changing? What is different with the young millennials, even, now, the first wave of Gen Z coming the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of the things that we about at Vimeo a lot is a lot of the and communication modes that we still use today, they’re really antiquated. were designed for a totally different environment and a totally different generation. I see a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is line between your personal life and work life is definitely blending. … you think about your personal life — look at TikTok. This is used to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. And if they then to come to work and to be trained on a job, read 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? Or if miss 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 there is definitely sort of this — you know, we about the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just fancy words saying the way … we communicate and interact in our personal lives going to translate to work. And so I definitely think that’s an area of opportunity.
The other 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 to really understand the “why” behind things. And one of our mantras is we never talk about the “what” without the “why.” I think there’s a desire to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, or “My boss me that this is what we’re going to do” or — that, I think, is moving away, and people, they don’t just want to do something someone with formal authority told them to do it. They to do it because they understand why it matters, why it ties the mission. And I think that that forces leaders to really bring more of the “why” into how communicate and motivate people.
So those are two of the things I see, and then, you know, third I think is just flexibility. I think — and this is of all of us, but particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking for flexibility and want options and choices. And it’s not always easy and feasible to ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try and orient it more agility. How can we have approaches and principles and be to things, but also know when to question, and to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of ways that you at have tried to really be proactive when it 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 or processes you’ve put in place that really to this big sea change we’re seeing in terms of values the 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 Q and As engagement surveys, and things like that. And some of the that we’ve done, we have a people and culture NPS, promoter score, the same way we have for our users, for our teams. But I would say one of the things that we’ve tried to do is appreciate that when we get inputs our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t look at averages. You can’t look at it all in totality and try and pull out obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you — when you really dig into it and truly and do focus groups and talk to people — what you’ll find actually there’s very different experiences and desires among your employees. And so, I think for us, we’ve really just tried to do is have a bunch of different listening mechanisms and then resist the to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this is what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do thing as the 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 have changed approach to hybrid work or travel or even things like our approach to compensation or our approach DE and I. So I think it’s more just like I said, that listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, but not treating as, like, an average or the same. And for us, it’s particularly stark because we have offices and teams in so many countries and the differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, the way we solve different things. And we used to have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” approach in the name of consistency and fairness, and we found is we have to be more localized. We really do. We have to design mechanisms support our teams in a very different way, because experiences and the world around them is quite different.
So I that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, it 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 has a perspective on whether they do open Q and A or anonymous Q and A, real-time Q and A. We’ve changed our approach there times, and I know we will again, because we’re still figuring out the way to listen and have a dialogue with a very workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers to the for just another moment, because another thing I hear from of my generation and older is a concern about making sure that we are not just providing our employees with the flexibility and the purpose that they need, also the training and the wisdom that comes, oftentimes, from being in proximity to a mentor or to somebody who’s done the for many more years. What is your philosophy and take making sure that knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t know everyone will sort of have a solution for. I think about that all the time. We have very distributed workforce at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My executive team is entirely distributed. I’ve really realized the benefits of being able to a distributed workforce and being able to attract talent just be more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the 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 modeling it at top. So if my entire executive team is distributed, that I have to learn how to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for whole set of new executives who have just joined. We have of changed up the executive team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve to deal with the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — call it our operating system — we’ve had to design operating system, as an executive team, for how we’re to work together in that environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do create the right communication loops? And so I think, from my perspective, it’s more we have to able to do it ourselves and model it and then, 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 for learning. do have — we bring people into an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks come in and spend time in a room with their team, do social activities, all of 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 it’s really critical that as leaders, we do that, so this next generation is able to get the same growth opportunities 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 that have really encouraged their young people to present, as a way having to go out and find the information they need. And then, we have video tools available to us now, you know, they an opportunity to share their ideas with a large group people, but first, kind of going through the fact-finding and the research, and sharing their ideas. In an earlier comment, you talked a little bit about mental illness and the different that people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During the Lives Matter protests, we had a lot of people coming to the office trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble to the surface. I’m wondering if you can share a bit about how you deal with this increasing personal — you know, when people bring whole selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, they bring things, parts of that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always thought the responsibility of a leader is to empower people do their best work and the responsibility of a company is to empower our people to do best work. And so, of course, we have a real role to play in supporting things like mental-health or burnout. And, you know, the way I think, like many companies, the we initially probably sought to do that was more, you know, you’re a problem and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health resources support or time off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. I that’s really important. And I always say, to so many of managers … just care. If we just care, a lot things get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred mechanisms if you just have the right people place who care. At the same time, I will say what we’re realizing now, in of this next phase, is that that’s a reactive approach actually the root cause — that we can control Vimeo — the root cause of a lot of stress and burnout is sometimes people either don’t have … focus, we’re asking people to do too many things or they don’t feel like they’re supported in doing 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 root there that’s a “Oh, I feel like I’m stressed there’s too much going on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, we should get into “What is the detail there, and do we need do things differently?” And, you know, one of our themes at this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think there are going to be stakeholders who say, you know, “Out with all of this touchy-feely, workplace-as-a-family stuff. Where are my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think the pendulum has already swung clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, software as 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 well. And I actually think, if you treat people well, with kindness empathy, you will get better results. And so, you know, for me, I think what I observed the last few years is — that part, I think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. There were, think, a lot of times when companies, we did things maybe it was lip service or we felt pressured. And that’s not to be sustainable. But that’s not what — ultimately, that’s not what need, in any case. So, you know, I sort of see it as — the way channel how you are caring towards your employees and how are empathetic, always should be in service of helping people do their work, which will deliver results, which will be good the bottom line. And you have to believe that. have to be committed to that and if you use that consistently in decision-making, it should not be a trade-off. These are not exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking of yourself during this period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You mentioned just had a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as leader, do you practice some self-care or how do you make that you’re getting the balance you need to be the effective leader you can be?
AS: I think — recently, phrase I use a lot to myself is “two things can true, both can be true.” I say this a lot. And for me, I of it as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went at the height of the pandemic and last year, volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through a ton post-pandemic, we have a team in Ukraine going through a war — all these things have happened. And so, it’s a hard job, and it’s incredibly privileged job. It’s a gift, right? And so, I think for me, it’s sort of acknowledging both of things has helped me a lot. The way I’ve to kind of lead, has been — it’s always this way, which is, for me, it’s I have to passion. I have to have passion. I have to so deeply that what Vimeo is doing is important matters for the world. And if I have passion, I energy and then I will — I can kind of through anything. I have to find joy in my team. I like, especially in hard times, I look back at career and actually, some of my most fulfilling times work were when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s because it brought a of people together all on one team, and so think that’s been, you know, a really big part it. And then, yeah, like, you have to be a little selfish sometimes, take care of yourself. And I am really fortunate. I think I a great support network around me and I do … My husband I have a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear for couple of hours. I just disappear and I walk around the city and listen to my music and do whatever I need to do, and that’s important.
SM: So you talked about how hybrid work is going to look different in the future than how we describe it today. It’s in office a couple of days, work from home a couple of other days. Tell us a bit more about what you could potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I think the idea of office as a time and place completely goes away. And I it’s really going to be people are going to want work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the of where you’re located is going to change. And then the idea 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 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 — 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 about the skill set 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 and alignment at scale? How do you organize programs, it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All of that is to look 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 place or budget, in some cases. And I think those constraints are going to go away. And promise is that if we are flexible and smart and use technology in the right way, that we’ll actually come away a more evolved and efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think you showed us some of the passion that you’ve talked about as being the that gives you energy to lead that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. This great.