Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here with today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to here.
SM: At Vimeo, you lead a workforce of 1,300 worldwide — you have creatives, you have finance people, you have technologists. I’m going to start with a really easy question: what was it to manage this diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very fraught to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was challenging. You know, I think the only constant has been change. as a leader, you obviously — you have a workforce that’s looking for certainty, they’re looking to control what’s happening around them. And I what we all found, as leaders, no matter what company you … 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. How we stay flexible as a team? How do we in real time and keep people informed as we try and move things? And then, also just how do we lead with humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve learned over the last few years is we each experience world so differently. We have employees who are remote. We have an incredible team in … employees who are on the front lines, who are literally war. On the 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 apply a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I ultimately think forced us, as a company, to build more trust, to be agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, have 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 an example of something that you put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance or build trust or create a greater sense of community even to communicate that there is no certainty, that is a muscle that you think you’ll continue to in the organization far into the 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 — of the hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is you lose context and you lose when you communicate. And we did make a concerted to move away from email and chat, text-based communication, much as possible, and actually try, particularly for our team, when we 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 lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So I … I record my screen and just send a out to people. Every new hire does a video welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually replaced with quick video presentations. And actually, what that really did was allow the humanity and the to come through and I think that helped us a lot to, kind of, stay close. So was 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 critical part of being agile is recognizing we have an area isn’t working. And so one of the things that we do Vimeo is we try — I do this in all of my halls, we do it in a lot of meetings — is always talk what’s working, what are our top three things, and isn’t working — yet. And we’ve kind of created, I think, a framework that sort of the stigma away from talking about what’s not working. And when you make that normalized and comfortable people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, as an organization, what do we need to change, what do we need to pivot. And both those, being more video-first in our communication and being more transparent and normalizing what’s not working, I think been really helpful, and certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: I 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 organization has changed. How do you 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, know, one of the things that we think about Vimeo a 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 I see a of differences. One of them, I think, is the line between your life and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about your life — 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 to be trained on a job, read a 300-page manual? Like, it’s going to happen, right? Or if you miss the meeting, you have to watch the Zoom recording of a three-hour — that’s just not going to happen. And so I that there is definitely sort of this — you know, we talk the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those are just fancy words saying the way … we communicate and interact in personal lives is going to translate to work. And so I think that’s an area of opportunity.
The other thing I see from of the generation, the newest generation coming into the workforce, is sort of, course mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to really the “why” behind things. And one of our communication mantras is never talk about the “what” without the “why.” And I there’s a desire to — the idea that, well, there’s hierarchy, or “My boss told me that this is what we’re going do” or — 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 understand why it matters, why it ties to the mission. I think that that forces leaders to really bring more of “why” into how we communicate and motivate people.
So those are two the things I see, and then, you know, the I think is just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all us, but particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking for flexibility and they want options and choices. it’s not always easy and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but this where I try and orient it more to agility. can we have approaches and principles and be committed to things, also know when to question, and when to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can share a few examples of ways that you at Vimeo tried to really be proactive when it comes to or understanding what your next generation of employees are going to want, in terms of purpose or in terms of benefits or in of flexibility? Are there programs or 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, course, it’s all about listening, right? And I think, like many organizations, way we’ve tried to listen and understand our workforce is similar: it’s Q and As and engagement surveys, and things like that. And some of things that we’ve done, we have a people and NPS, net promoter score, the same way we have for users, for our internal teams. But I would say one of the that we’ve really tried to do is appreciate that we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t at the averages. You can’t look at it all in totality and try pull out an obvious “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” what you actually — when you really dig into it truly listen and do focus groups and talk to — what you’ll find is actually there’s very different experiences desires 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 conveniently pull, like, “Oh, is what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this thing the action.” And it’s hard, and we’re still kind of figuring out, but I will tell you, some of the things that we’ve heard from employees have our approach to hybrid work or travel or even things our approach to compensation or our approach to DE and I. So I it’s more just like I said, that agile listening, really understanding what’s happening, but not treating everything as, like, average or the same. And for us, it’s been particularly stark because we have offices and teams so many different countries and the differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, about the way we solve different things. And we to have a very, sort of, “One Vimeo” global 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 to our teams in a very different way, because their experiences and the world them is quite different.
So I think that’s definitely one, and I will tell you, it has involved a of — as 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 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 I know we again, because we’re still figuring out the right way listen and have a dialogue 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 making sure that we not just providing our youngest employees with the flexibility and the purpose that need, but also the training and the wisdom 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 philosophy and take on making that knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t know that everyone will sort have a solution for. I think about that all time. We have a very distributed workforce at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. executive team is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits of being able to a distributed workforce and being able to attract talent and just be more inclusive. the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of the same kinds of learning and mentorship, particularly for the youngest folks that are entering the workforce. 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 at top. So if my entire executive team is distributed, that means I have learn how to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole set of new who have just joined. We have sort of changed up the team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve had deal with the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we call our operating system — we’ve had to design an operating system, as an executive team, for we’re going to work together in that environment. How do share real-time feedback? How do we create the right communication loops? so I think, from my perspective, it’s more we have to be able do it ourselves and model it and then, I think it’s more proven mechanism for young people. I will say, like many … I do believe that in-person collaboration is really important for learning. We do — we bring people into an office. If you’re remote, ask folks to come in and spend time in 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 don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly and I it’s really critical that as leaders, we do that, so that next generation is able to get the same growth that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the tools that you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, around video, can be really there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations that have really their young people to present, as a way of having to out and find the information they need. And then, because have video tools available to us 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 sharing their ideas. In earlier comment, you talked a little bit about mental illness and different things that people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. the Black 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 if you can share a little bit about how you deal with this increasing personal — you know, people bring their whole selves to the office, which encourage, sometimes, they bring things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: … I’ve always thought the responsibility of a leader to empower people to do their best work and responsibility of a company is to empower our people do their best work. And so, of course, we a 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 a and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health resources or support or off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. I that’s really important. And I always say, to so many of our … just care. If we just care, a lot of things 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 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 at Vimeo — the root cause of a lot of and burnout is sometimes people either don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking people to do too many things or don’t feel like they’re supported in doing those things. And that, I think, actually where we should be spending more time — how do we actually set 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 get into the “What is detail there, and do we need to do things differently?” And, know, one of our themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there are going 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 the pendulum has already swung pretty clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, software a service, so we already went from “growth at cost” to “profitability,” you know, pendulum swing. My perspective on this — and it hasn’t changed — think the best leaders and cultures deliver results and people well. And I actually think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, you will better results. And so, you know, for me, I think what I observed over the last few years — that part, I think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. were, I think, a lot of times when companies, we did because maybe it was lip service or we felt pressured. And that’s not going to sustainable. But that’s not what — ultimately, that’s not what people need, in case. So, you 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 deliver results, which will be good for the bottom line. And you to believe that. You have to be committed to that and if you that consistently in your decision-making, it should not be trade-off. These are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been care of yourself during this period of tremendous turmoil and change, but growth? You mentioned you just had a baby. There’s a lot on shoulders. How, as a leader, do you practice some self-care or how you make sure that you’re getting the balance you need to be most 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. 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 been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, we a team in Ukraine going through a war — all these things that have happened. so, it’s a hard job, and it’s an incredibly privileged job. It’s a gift, right? And so, I for me, it’s sort of acknowledging both of those things helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried to kind of lead, has — it’s always been this way, which is, for me, it’s I have have passion. I have to have passion. I have to believe deeply that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters for world. And if I have passion, I have energy and then I will — I can kind move through anything. I have to find joy in my team. I feel like, especially hard times, I look back at my career and actually, some of most fulfilling times in work were when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s it brought a group of people together all on team, and so I think that’s been, you know, a big part of it. And then, yeah, like, you have to be little selfish sometimes, and take care of yourself. And I really fortunate. I think I have a great support network around and I do … My husband and I have a deal, on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. I just and I walk around the city and I listen to my music and whatever I need to do, and that’s really important.
SM: So you talked how hybrid work is going to look very different in the future than we describe it today. It’s basically in office a couple of days, work from a couple of other 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 are going to want to work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. Even concept of where you’re located is going to change. And then the idea like “I’m going to work on this time zone” or “I’m going attend this meeting that’s scheduled on this date” — think 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 be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration will happen asynchronously and we will using tools and technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — basically enable that at scale among many people, anywhere in the world. And then I think leadership, leaders going to look different. Because I think it’s going to require — if you think about skill set to be a global CEO 30 years ago versus what will require now — I think in the future … the skill set is to be like, “How do you communicate with diverse, global 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, you know, training?” All of that is to look very different. But I think the ultimate thing you’ll is just … there were these constraints that we’ve with, whether it was time or place or budget, in some cases. And I think those are going to go away. And the promise is that we are flexible and smart and we use technology in the right way, we’ll actually come away a much more evolved and workforce.
SM: Well, I think you just showed us some of the that you’ve talked about as being the thing that gives you energy to that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. This great.