Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re with us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, lead a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you have creatives, you finance people, you have technologists. So I’m going to start with a really easy question: what it like to 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 was really challenging. You know, I the only constant has been change. And as a leader, you obviously — have a workforce that’s looking for certainty, and they’re looking control what’s happening around them. And I think what we all found, as leaders, no what company you were … responsible for, was that couldn’t offer certainty, and you couldn’t always control the environment and the around you. And so, you know, for me, it really about agility. How do we stay flexible as a team? do we communicate in real time and keep people informed we try and move through things? And then, also how do we lead with more humanity? You know, Vimeo, one of the things I’ve really learned over the last few is we each experience the world so differently. We employees who are remote. We have an incredible team in … 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 — hardest part was not being able to give everyone certainty, not being able to just apply a one-size-fits-all for everyone. But I ultimately think it forced us, as a company, build more trust, because to be agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, you have to trust other. And 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 the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust or a greater sense of community or even to communicate that there no certainty, that is a muscle that you think you’ll to use in the organization far into the future?
AS: There’s a couple things that we did. One — and we are a video platform, so I obviously have to about video, but I mean this sincerely — one the hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is lose 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 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 lot of communications, a lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So send … I record my screen and just send note out to people. Every new hire does a to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our we’ve actually replaced with just quick video presentations. And actually, what really did was allow the humanity and the context come through and I think that helped us a to, kind of, stay close. So that was one, I think, really important thing.
Another important thing is, think, just creating mechanisms to make it easier to talk about things aren’t working, because a critical part of being is recognizing we 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 of my town halls, we do in a lot of meetings — is always talk about what’s working, are our top three things, and what isn’t working — yet. we’ve kind of created, I think, a framework that sort takes the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. when you make that normalized and comfortable for people, feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, as an organization, about do we need to change, what do we need to pivot. And both of those, being video-first in our communication and being more transparent and normalizing what’s not working, I think has really helpful, and certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: I love advice about being video-first. So many of our members of workforce live in a video world. They’re used to video as a means communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve about how the organization has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What different with the young millennials, and even, now, the first of Gen Z coming into the workplace?
AS: I it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of the that we think about at Vimeo a lot is a of the mechanisms and communication modes that we still use today, they’re antiquated. They were designed for a totally different environment and a totally different generation. But see a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is line between your personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about your personal — look at TikTok. This generation is used to content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. And if they then have to come to work and be trained on a job, read a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? Or if you miss meeting, and you have to watch the Zoom recording of a three-hour — that’s just not going to happen. And so I think that there is sort of this — you know, we talk about “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for the way … we communicate and interact in our personal lives is going translate to work. And so I definitely think that’s an area of opportunity.
The other thing see from sort of the generation, the newest generation coming into workforce, is sort of, of course mission-driven, but I there’s a desire to really understand the “why” behind things. And one of our communication mantras we never talk about the “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s a to — 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 increasingly away, and people, they don’t just want to do something because someone with formal authority them to do it. They want to do it because they why it matters, why it ties to the mission. And I think that that forces leaders to really more of the “why” into how we communicate and people.
So those are two of the things I see, and then, you know, the third I 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 they options and choices. And it’s not always easy and feasible to provide flexibility, but this is where I try and orient it to agility. How can we have approaches and principles and be committed to things, but also know when question, and when to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of that you at Vimeo have tried to really be when it comes to addressing or understanding what your next generation of employees are going to want, either terms of purpose or in terms of benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are programs or processes you’ve put in place that really speak to this big sea we’re seeing in terms of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all about listening, right? I think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried to and understand our workforce is very similar: it’s Q and As and surveys, and things like that. And some of the things that we’ve done, we have a and culture NPS, net promoter score, the same way we have for our users, for internal teams. But I would say one of the things that we’ve really tried to do appreciate that when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 … you can’t look at the averages. You can’t look at it all totality and try and pull out an obvious “Oh, is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — you really dig into it and truly listen and do focus groups and talk people — 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 and then the urge to conveniently 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 it out, but I will tell you, some of things that we’ve heard from employees have changed our approach to hybrid work or or even things like our approach to compensation or approach to DE and I. So I think it’s just like I said, that agile listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, but not treating as, like, an average or the 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 used to have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach the name of consistency and fairness, and what we found is we have to be localized. We really do. We have to design mechanisms support our teams in a very different way, because their and the world around them is quite different.
So I think that’s definitely been one, and I will you, it has involved a lot of — as executive team and leadership team — it’s involved a lot trying things, it not working, and changing them. And a great example our Q and A. I feel like every leader I know has perspective on whether they do open Q and A or anonymous Q and A, or real-time Q A. We’ve changed our approach there multiple times, and know we will again, because we’re still figuring out right way to listen and have a dialogue with a diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers to the workplace for just another moment, because another I hear from CEOs of my generation and older is concern about making sure that we are not just providing our youngest employees with the flexibility the purpose that they need, but also the training and the that comes, oftentimes, from being in close proximity to a mentor or to who’s done the job for many more years. What is your and take on making sure that knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t that everyone will sort of have a solution for. think about that all the time. We have a very distributed workforce Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My executive team entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being able have a distributed workforce and being able to attract talent 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 youngest folks that are entering the workforce. So I it’s a challenge. One of the approaches that we’ve been taking, and what’s sort of nice, we’re modeling 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 executives who have just joined. We have sort of changed up the executive team almost entirely in last twelve months. So I’ve had to deal with the same challenges. And we’ve had literally — we call it our operating system — we’ve had to design an operating system, as executive team, for 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, from perspective, it’s more we have to be able to do it ourselves and it and then, I think it’s a more proven mechanism young people. I will say, like many companies … I do believe that in-person is really important for learning. We do have — we bring people into an office. you’re remote, we ask folks to come in and spend in a room with their team, do social activities, all of those things. don’t think they will go away, nor do I think should. But, you know, candidly, it’s an area that I don’t we’ve really figured out perfectly and I think it’s really critical that as leaders, we that, so that this next generation is able to get the same growth opportunities that we had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the tools you mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation, video, can be really helpful there. I’ve heard of number of organizations that have really encouraged their young to present, as a way of having to go 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 group of people, but first, kind of going through 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 Lives Matter protests, we had a lot of people coming to office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble to surface. I’m wondering if you can share a little about how you deal with this increasing personal — you know, when 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 responsibility 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 a real role to play supporting things like mental-health issues 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 seeing problem and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health resources or support or time off. And, think — and empathy, just empathy. I think that’s really important. And I say, to so many of our managers … just care. If we care, a lot of things get easier. You don’t have design a hundred mechanisms if you just have the right people in place who care. At the 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 at — the root cause of a lot of stress and burnout is sometimes either don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking people do too many things or they don’t feel like they’re in doing those things. And that, I think, is where we should be spending more time — is how we actually set the right prioritization and focus. There’s some issue there, right? There’s root cause there that’s a “Oh, I feel like I’m because there’s too much going on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, should get into the “What is the detail there, do we need to do things differently?” And, you know, of our themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, you think that there are going to be stakeholders say, you know, “Out with all of this touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. Where my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think the pendulum has already swung pretty clearly. mean, I work in SAS, software as a service, so we already went from “growth all cost” to “profitability,” you know, pendulum swing. My on this — and it hasn’t changed — I think the best leaders and cultures deliver and treat people well. And I actually think, if you people well, with kindness and empathy, you will get better results. so, you know, for me, I think what I observed over the few years is — that part, I think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. were, I think, a lot of times when companies, we things because maybe it was lip service or we pressured. And that’s not going to be sustainable. But that’s not — ultimately, that’s not what people need, in any case. So, know, I sort of see it as — the way you how you are caring towards your employees and how you are empathetic, always be in service of helping people do their best work, which will deliver results, which will good 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. These are not mutually things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking care of yourself during this period of tremendous and change, but also growth? You mentioned you just had baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, do you practice some self-care or how you make sure that you’re getting the balance you need be the most effective leader you can be?
AS: think — recently, the 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 think of as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We public at the height of the pandemic and last year, market has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through a with post-pandemic, we have a team in Ukraine going through a war — all these that have happened. And so, it’s a hard job, and it’s an incredibly job. It’s a gift, right? And so, I think for me, it’s sort of acknowledging both of those has helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried to kind of lead, been — it’s always been this way, which is, me, it’s I have to have passion. I have to passion. I have to believe so deeply that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters for world. And if I have passion, I have energy and I will — I can kind of move through anything. I to find joy in my team. I feel like, in hard times, I look back at my career and actually, some of my most fulfilling in work were when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s because it brought a group of people all on one team, and so I think that’s been, you know, a really big of it. And then, yeah, like, you have to be a little sometimes, and take care of yourself. And I am fortunate. I think I have a great support network me and I do … My husband and I have a deal, on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. I disappear and I walk around the city and I listen my music and do whatever I need to do, and that’s important.
SM: So you talked about how hybrid work going to look very different in the future than we describe it today. It’s basically in office a couple days, work from home a couple of other days. Tell us a little bit more what you could potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I think the idea an office as a time and place completely goes away. And I think it’s going to be people are going to want to work anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the concept of where you’re located going to change. And then the idea of like “I’m going to work on this time zone” “I’m going to attend this meeting that’s scheduled on 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 tools and technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable that at scale many people, anywhere in the world. And then I think leadership, leaders are to look different. Because I think it’s going to — if you think about the skill set to be a global 30 years ago versus what that will require now — I think in the future … the skill is going to be like, “How do you communicate with diverse, global 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 of is going to look very different. But I think the thing you’ll see is just … there were these constraints that we’ve lived with, whether was time or place or budget, in some cases. And I think those constraints are to go away. And the promise is that if we are flexible and and we use technology in the right way, that we’ll actually away a much more evolved and efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think you just showed some of the passion that you’ve talked about as being the thing that gives energy to lead that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being here today.
AS: you. This was great.