Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re with us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great be here.
SM: At Vimeo, you lead a workforce of 1,300 people — you have creatives, you have finance people, you technologists. So I’m going to start with a really easy question: what was it like to this diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and very fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was really challenging. know, I think the only constant has been change. as a leader, you obviously — you have a workforce that’s looking for certainty, and they’re to control what’s happening around them. And I think what we all found, leaders, no matter what company you were … responsible for, was that couldn’t offer certainty, and you couldn’t always control the 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 as we try and move through things? And then, just how do we lead with more humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve learned over the last few years is we each experience the so differently. We have employees who are remote. We have an incredible team in Ukraine … who are on the front lines, who are literally at war. On other hand, you have people in different parts of the world are experiencing mental-health challenges 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, to build more trust, because to agile and flexible, and 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: you give an example of something that you put into place, 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 a 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. — and we are a video platform, so I obviously to talk about video, but I mean this sincerely — one of the parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is you lose context you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make a concerted effort to move away from 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 streaming a lot of communications, recording a lot of videos. We asynchronous video messages. So I send … I record screen and just send a note out to people. Every new hire does a to welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually with just quick video presentations. And actually, what that really did allow the humanity and the context to 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 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 things that 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, are our top three things, and what isn’t working — yet. we’ve kind of created, I think, a framework that of takes the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. And when you make that normalized and for people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, an organization, about what do we need to change, what do we need pivot. And both of those, being more video-first in our communication and being more transparent normalizing what’s not working, I think has been really helpful, and certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: love that advice about being video-first. So many of our of our workforce live in a video world. They’re to video as a means of communication. Which brings to my next question. You’ve talked about how the has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? is different with the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen Z into the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, of the things that we think about at Vimeo lot is a lot of the mechanisms and communication modes we still use today, they’re really antiquated. They were for a totally different environment and a totally different generation. But see a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is the line your personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about your personal life — at TikTok. This generation is used to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. And if then have to come to work and to be trained on a job, a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? if you miss the meeting, and you have to watch the Zoom of a three-hour meeting — that’s just not going to happen. And so think that there is definitely sort of this — you know, we talk about the “consumerization enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for saying the way … we communicate and interact our personal lives is going to translate to work. And so I definitely think that’s area of opportunity.
The other thing I see from sort the generation, the newest generation coming into the workforce, is sort of, course mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to really understand “why” behind things. And one of our communication mantras is we never talk the “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s a to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, or “My boss me that this is what we’re going to do” — that, I 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 they understand why matters, why it ties to the mission. And I think that that forces to really bring more of the “why” into how we communicate motivate people.
So those are two of the things see, and then, you know, the third I think just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all us, but particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking flexibility and they want options and choices. And it’s not always easy and to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try and it more to agility. How can we have approaches and principles and be committed to things, but also when to question, and when to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share few examples of ways that you at Vimeo have tried to really proactive when it comes to addressing or understanding what your generation of employees are going to want, either in terms of purpose or in of benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or processes you’ve put in that really speak to this big sea change we’re in terms of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all about listening, right? And think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried to listen understand our workforce is very similar: it’s Q and and engagement surveys, and things like that. And some of 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 when get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t look at the averages. can’t look at it all in totality and try and out an obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — when you really into it and truly listen and do focus groups and 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 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 do this thing as the action.” And it’s hard, we’re still kind of figuring it out, but I tell you, some of the things that we’ve heard from have changed our approach to hybrid work or travel or even things like our 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, not treating everything as, like, an average or the same. And us, it’s been particularly stark because we have offices and teams in so many different countries the 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 is we have to be more localized. really do. We have to design mechanisms to support our teams in a very different way, their experiences and the world around them is quite different.
So I that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, it has involved a lot of — an executive team and leadership team — it’s involved lot of trying things, it not working, and changing them. And a great is our Q and A. I feel like every leader I know has a perspective whether they do open Q and A or anonymous Q A, or real-time Q and A. We’ve changed our approach multiple 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 on newcomers to the workplace for just another moment, because another I hear from CEOs of my generation and older a concern about making sure that we are not just providing our youngest employees with flexibility and the purpose that they need, but also the training and the that comes, oftentimes, from being in close proximity to a mentor to somebody 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 don’t know that everyone will sort of have a solution for. I think about all the time. We have a very distributed workforce at Vimeo. We have people in over countries. My executive team is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being able to have distributed workforce and being able to attract talent and just be more inclusive. On the side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of the same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the folks that are 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 team is distributed, that means I have to learn to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole of new executives who have just joined. We have sort changed up the executive team almost entirely in the twelve months. So I’ve had to deal with the same challenges. And we’ve to literally — we call it our operating system — we’ve had to design an operating system, as an team, for how we’re going to work together in environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do we create right communication loops? And so I think, from my perspective, it’s we have to be able to do it ourselves and model and 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 into an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks to in and spend time in a room with their team, 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 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 all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the that you mentioned 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 their young people to present, a way of having to go out and find the information need. And then, because we have video tools available to us now, know, they have an opportunity to share their ideas a large group of people, but first, kind of going through the fact-finding and research, and then sharing their ideas. In an earlier comment, talked a little bit about mental illness and the different things that are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. the Black Lives Matter protests, we had a lot people coming to the office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble to surface. I’m wondering if you can share a little bit about how you deal with this increasing — you know, when people bring their whole selves to 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 to do their best work and the responsibility of a company is to empower people to do their best work. And so, of course, we have a role to play in supporting things like mental-health issues or burnout. And, you know, the way I think, many 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 important. And I always say, to so many of managers … just care. If we just care, a lot of get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred mechanisms you 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 the root cause — that we can control at Vimeo — the root cause a lot of stress and burnout is sometimes people don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking people to do too things or they don’t feel like they’re supported in doing things. And that, I think, is actually where we should be spending time — is how do we actually set the right prioritization and focus. There’s some there, right? There’s a root cause there that’s a “Oh, I feel I’m stressed 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, and do we to do things differently?” And, you know, one of our themes at Vimeo this year “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy starts to, maybe, sideways, do you think that there are going to be stakeholders who say, know, “Out with 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 already went “growth at all cost” to “profitability,” you know, pendulum swing. perspective on this — and it hasn’t changed — think the best leaders and cultures deliver results and treat people well. I actually think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, will get better results. And so, you know, for me, think what I observed over the last few years is — that part, think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. There were, I think, a lot of when companies, we did things because maybe it was lip or we 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 it as — way you channel how you are caring towards your and how you are empathetic, always should be in service of helping people 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 that and if you use that consistently in your decision-making, it not be a trade-off. These are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking care of during this period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You mentioned you had a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, a leader, do you practice some self-care or how do you make sure you’re getting the balance you need to be the most effective leader you can be?
AS: 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 as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public the height of the pandemic and last year, market volatility has been tremendous. know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, we a team in Ukraine going through a war — all things that 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 both of those things has helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried kind of lead, has been — it’s always been way, which is, for me, it’s I have to passion. I have to have passion. I have to believe so deeply that what Vimeo doing is important and matters for the world. And I have passion, I have energy and then I — I can kind of move through anything. I have to find in my team. I feel like, especially in hard times, look back at my career and actually, some of most fulfilling times in work were when — in 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 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 have a great support network around me I do … My husband and I have a deal, on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. I just disappear and I around the city and I listen to my music and do I need to do, and that’s really important.
SM: you talked about how hybrid work is going to look different in the future than how we describe it today. It’s basically office a couple of days, work from home a couple of days. Tell us a little bit more about what you could potentially see evolving into.
AS: I think the idea of an office as a time and place completely away. And I think it’s really going to be people going to want to work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even the of where you’re located is going to change. And the idea of like “I’m going to work on this time zone” or “I’m going to this meeting that’s scheduled on this date” — I think that’s to go away. And I think what you’re going to is more and more work, particularly from knowledge workers, is going to be done anywhere, anytime. and collaboration will happen asynchronously and we will be using tools and — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable that scale among many people, anywhere in the world. And then think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because think it’s going to require — if you think about the skill to be a global CEO 30 years ago versus what that will require now — think in the future … the skill set is to be like, “How do you communicate with diverse, global audiences employees across time zones in a way that is effective, provides context and alignment at scale? How do you programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All of that going to look very different. But I think the thing you’ll see is just … there were these constraints we’ve lived with, whether it was time or place or budget, some cases. And I think those constraints are going to go away. And the promise is 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 that gives you energy to that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being today.
AS: Thank you. This was great.