Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great be here.
SM: At Vimeo, you 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 question: what was it like to manage this diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and very fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, was really challenging. You know, I think the only constant has been change. And a leader, you obviously — you have a workforce that’s for certainty, and they’re looking to control what’s happening around them. And I 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 control environment and the things around you. And so, you know, me, it was really about agility. How do we stay as 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 the things I’ve really learned over the last few years we each experience the world so differently. We have employees who 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 in different of the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, and I think it was really just — the hardest part was not 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 agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, you have to each other. And so, I’m sort of optimistic that we’re emerging from this time with a culture that is more and nimble, and also, hopefully, has more trust.
SM: Can you give an of something that you put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance communications build trust or create a greater sense of community or to communicate that there is no certainty, that is muscle that you think you’ll continue to use in the organization far into future?
AS: There’s a couple of things that we did. One — we are a video platform, so I obviously have to talk about video, but I mean this — one of the hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is lose context and you lose nuance when you communicate. And we make a concerted effort to move away from email chat, text-based communication, as much as possible, and actually try, particularly for our leadership team, when were communicating, to do it with your face, and hands and your body and your emotions. And we that through live streaming a lot of communications, recording a lot of videos. We asynchronous video messages. So I send … I record my screen and just a 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 to come through and I think that helped us lot to, kind of, stay close. So that was one, I think, really thing.
Another important thing is, I think, just creating to make it easier to talk about when things aren’t working, a critical part of being agile is recognizing we an area that isn’t working. And so one of the things that do at Vimeo is we try — I do this in of my town halls, we do it in a of meetings — is always talk about what’s working, what are our top three things, what isn’t working — yet. And we’ve kind of created, I think, a that sort of takes the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. when you make that normalized and comfortable for people, I like it’s allowed us to be more open, as an organization, about what do need to change, what do we need to pivot. both 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 carrying forward.
SM: I love that advice being video-first. So many of our members of our live in a video world. They’re used to video a means of communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve talked about the organization has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is with the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Z coming into the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of the that we think about at Vimeo a lot is a lot the mechanisms and communication modes that we still use today, they’re really antiquated. were designed for a totally different environment and a different generation. But I see a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is the line between personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If you about your personal life — look at TikTok. This generation is to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. if they then have to come to work and to be trained on job, read a 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 that there is sort of this — you know, we talk about the “consumerization enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for saying the way … we communicate and interact in our lives is going to translate to 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 into workforce, is sort of, of course mission-driven, but I there’s a desire to really understand the “why” behind things. And of our communication mantras is we never talk about “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s a to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, “My boss told me that this is what we’re going to do” or — that, think, is increasingly moving away, and people, they don’t just want to do something someone with formal authority told them to do it. They want to do it because understand why it matters, why it ties to the mission. And I think that that forces leaders really bring 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 think is just 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 options choices. And it’s not always easy and feasible to ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try and orient it more to agility. How can we approaches and principles and be committed to things, but also know when to question, and when to pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples ways that you at Vimeo have tried to really proactive when it comes to addressing or understanding what next generation of employees are going to want, either terms of purpose or in terms of benefits or in terms flexibility? Are there programs or processes you’ve put in place that really speak this big sea change we’re seeing in terms of from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all listening, right? And I think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried listen and understand our workforce is very similar: it’s and As and engagement surveys, and things like that. some of the things that we’ve done, we have a people and culture NPS, net promoter score, same way we have for our users, for our internal teams. But I would say one of things that we’ve really tried to do is appreciate that 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, is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — when really dig into it and truly listen and do groups and talk to people — what you’ll find actually there’s very different experiences and desires among your employees. And so, think for us, what we’ve really just tried to is have a bunch of different listening mechanisms and resist the urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this 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, but I tell you, some of the things that we’ve heard from employees changed our approach to hybrid work or travel or even things like our approach to compensation our approach to DE and I. So I think it’s more just like I said, that agile listening, constantly understanding what’s happening, but not treating everything as, like, an or the same. And for us, it’s been particularly stark because 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. we used to have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global approach in the name of consistency and fairness, what we found is we have to be more localized. We really do. We have to mechanisms to support our teams in a very different way, because their experiences and world around them is quite different.
So I think that’s definitely been one, I will tell you, it has involved a lot — as an executive team and leadership team — it’s a lot of trying things, it not working, and them. And a great example is our Q and A. feel like every leader I know has a perspective 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 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 and older a concern about making sure that we are not just providing our employees with the flexibility and the purpose that they need, but also training and the wisdom that comes, oftentimes, from being close proximity to a mentor or to somebody who’s the job for many more years. What is your philosophy and take on sure that knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s major challenge that I don’t know that everyone will sort have a solution for. I 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 to have a distributed and being able to attract talent and just be more inclusive. On flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of the same of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the youngest folks are entering the workforce. So I think it’s a challenge. One of the approaches that we’ve taking, and what’s sort of nice, is we’re modeling it the top. So if my entire executive team is distributed, that means I have to learn how to real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole set of new executives who have just joined. We have of changed up the executive team almost entirely in the last months. So I’ve had 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 real-time feedback? How do we create the right communication loops? And I think, from my perspective, it’s more we have to be able to it ourselves and model it and then, I think it’s a proven mechanism for young people. I will say, like many companies … I do that in-person collaboration is really important for learning. We do have — we bring people an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks to come in and spend time in room with their team, do social activities, all of those things. I don’t they will go away, nor do I think they should. But, know, candidly, it’s an area that I don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly and I it’s really critical that as leaders, we do that, so that this next generation able to get the same growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the that you mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation, video, can be really helpful there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations that have really encouraged young people to present, as a way of having to go out and find the they need. And then, because we have video tools available to now, you know, they have an opportunity to share their with a large group of people, but first, kind going through the fact-finding and the research, and then their ideas. In an earlier comment, you talked a little bit mental illness and the different things that people are bringing to work, whether is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During the Black Lives Matter protests, we had a of people coming to 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 their whole to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, they bring things, parts of themselves that challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always thought the responsibility of a leader is to empower people to their best work and the responsibility of a company to empower our people to do their best work. so, of course, we have a real role to play in supporting like mental-health issues or burnout. And, you know, the way I think, many companies, the way we initially probably sought to do that was more, know, you’re seeing a problem and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health resources support or time off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. think that’s really important. And I always say, to so many of our … just care. If we just care, a lot of get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred mechanisms if you just have the people in place who care. At the same time, I say what we’re realizing now, in sort of this next phase, is that that’s a approach and actually the root cause — that we can control Vimeo — 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 supported in doing those things. that, I think, is actually where we should be spending more time — is how do actually set the right prioritization and focus. There’s some there, right? There’s a root cause 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 need to do things differently?” And, you know, one of themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there are to be stakeholders who say, you know, “Out with 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, I work in SAS, software as a service, 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, you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, you get better results. And 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. There were, I think, lot of times when companies, we did things because maybe it was lip service we felt pressured. And that’s not going to 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 committed to 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 change, but also growth? You mentioned you just had a baby. There’s lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, do you practice some self-care or how do make sure that you’re getting the balance you need to be most effective leader you can be?
AS: I think — recently, the phrase I use a lot myself is “two things can be true, both can be true.” say this a lot. And for me, I think of it as, like, “This is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public the height of the pandemic and last year, market volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously through a ton with post-pandemic, we have a team in Ukraine going through a war — all things 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 of acknowledging both of those things has helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried to kind lead, has been — it’s always been this way, which is, for me, it’s have to have passion. I have to have passion. I to believe so deeply that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters for the world. And I have passion, I have energy and then I will — I kind of move through anything. I have to find joy my team. I feel like, especially in hard times, I look at my career and actually, some of my most fulfilling times in work when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s because it a group of people together all on one team, so I think that’s been, you know, a really big part of it. And then, yeah, like, you to be a little selfish 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 a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. I just disappear I walk around the city and I listen to music and do whatever I need to do, and that’s really important.
SM: So you talked about how hybrid 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 the of an office as a time and place completely goes away. I think it’s really going to be people are going to want work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the concept 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 date” — I think that’s going to go away. And I think what you’re going to find is and more work, particularly from knowledge workers, is going be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration will happen and we will be using tools and technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s — to basically enable that at scale among many people, in the world. And then I think leadership, leaders going to look different. Because I think it’s going require — if you think about the skill set be a global CEO 30 years ago versus what that will now — I think in the future … the skill set going to be like, “How do you communicate with diverse, audiences and employees across time zones in a way that is effective, provides context and alignment at scale? How do you organize programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, know, training?” All of that is going to look different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll see is … there were these constraints that we’ve lived with, it was time or place or budget, in some cases. And I think those constraints are going to away. And the promise is that if we are flexible and smart and use technology 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 of the that you’ve talked about as being the thing that gives you to lead that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank so much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. was great.