People Operations Leader

Business Mind. People Soul.

I lead with a People Playbook, because people are your bottom line. Every human is different. So is every company. I see the humans behind the org chart, design the systems and teams that help them thrive, and show up with the integrity good leadership asks for. Warmth and rigor are not a tradeoff. They are how companies scale and how people stay.

Let's Connect
How I Think About This Work

You cannot scale a team you cannot see.

Growth follows clarity. When leaders see what their humans are capable of, what they need, and where they are heading, everything else gets easier.

Most turnover is preventable.

Retention is one of the most solvable problems in a company. When humans are clear on what they are doing, supported to do it well, and valued as the asset they are, they stay. That is the work. And it is learnable.

People leadership is the job, not a side effect.

Leadership done well is active. Paying attention. Mentoring. Empowering. Staying in sync with your team through the growth and the bumps, because growth always brings both. That is how people and companies thrive at the same time.

People strategy fails the moment it stops being about people.

Performance systems, culture work, learning programs: they all earn their keep when they are built for the humans who use them. Start with people. That is where the strategy lives.

Becca Garvin
People-first leader. Builder by nature.

What comes most naturally to me is reading people, naming the invisible gaps, and building the structure that closes them. I have been doing this for over 13 years.

My career started in executive recruiting. From day one out of college, I was placed in the middle of C-suite operations, becoming fluent in how executives think and what leadership teams need. Across ten years and hundreds of placements, I saw the patterns. What separates the companies that keep great people from the ones that keep hiring them back. It is a little like being a marriage counselor. You watch enough situations play out, and you learn what it takes to make people work together well.

The companies I do my best work with are progressive, fast-moving, and willing. They see people as worth investing in. Preventative or acute, it only works when everyone wants the outcome.

Three ways companies bring me in
People Diagnostics & Solution Design

For founders who feel the gap between where their team is and where it needs to be.

You can feel something is off. Maybe people aren't staying as long as they should. Maybe your team is capable but not connecting. Maybe you've outgrown the way things used to work and don't yet know what should replace it. You're not sure what's broken, but you know the gap is costing you.

Many founders feel the problem before they can name it. My job is to name it, then turn it into a plan you can act on.

How I work
  • 1. I listen. I sit down one-on-one with your people and ask open questions about what's working and what's getting in their way. Think of it as an x-ray.
  • 2. I look at the micro and the macro. Micro: what each individual is strong at and what they need. Macro: the patterns that show up across the company. This is the diagnostics: reading what the x-ray shows.
  • 3. I turn what I see into strategies and solutions. Some are quick wins. Some are long-term initiatives.
  • 4. I build it. Each initiative gets an owner and a status, so the work doesn't end with a report.
Examples of what I build

What I build depends on what the x-ray shows. Some examples:

  • Role and ownership clarity. Org charts, titles, role definitions, and who owns what.
  • Manager enablement and team lead development. Coaching, workshops, and a shared picture of what good leadership looks like at your company.
  • Founder offloading. A plan for what you can hand off, and to whom.
  • Individual growth maps. Each person's strengths, needs, and where they want to go, with a quick win to start.
  • Performance and feedback systems. Review cycles, goal setting, and feedback loops built for your stage.
  • Retention and recognition. Stay interviews, engagement measurement, and how people get acknowledged.
  • Stronger internal HR. Regular one-on-ones and training so the person running HR day to day grows into the role.
  • Meeting and operating rhythms. Built around how your teams work, so priorities and changes reach the people who need them.
  • Hiring infrastructure. Interview process, structured questions, and one shared place for candidates.
  • Onboarding design. A plan for a new hire's first weeks: what they own, who they work with, and what good looks like.
  • Systems and documentation. Choosing the tool, organizing what exists, and setting who keeps it current.
What this looks like in practice

A Series A company building power infrastructure across hardware and systems software, growing across offices in the US and Egypt.

I met one-on-one with the team in both countries, turned what people told me into clear patterns leadership hadn't named yet, and built those into decisions the founders could make and a tracked set of initiatives to carry them out.

Leadership Coaching & Mentorship

For founders and emerging leaders who want a thought partner who sees them.

Most coaching gives you frameworks. I give you a mirror.

I work 1:1 with founders navigating the people side of building a company, and with emerging leaders stepping into roles bigger than what they've done before. Part strategy, part reflection, part calling out what you already know but haven't said out loud yet.

Engagement cadence is tailored to individual needs, with async support in between.

Open to the right full-time fit.

If your company is ready for a Senior People leader and the values line up, I'd love to talk.

I lead HR teams and build the People function as companies scale and grow. Best fit for Senior People leadership roles in organizations where the people infrastructure needs to catch up to the business.

What I'm thinking about
Where I nerd out about culture, retention, and what's broken in how companies treat people.
A Note to Founders Right After a Round: Bones Have to Keep Up With the Body
Capital accelerates the body. The people infrastructure has to keep up, or momentum quietly turns into burnout, confused roles, and ICs in leadership seats they were never set up for.
How to Use AI to 10x Your Employee's Capacity, Not Replace Them
AI is being quietly misused in boardrooms as a pair of scissors when it could be a multiplier. Here's how winning companies are using AI to 10x their people instead of replace them.
Innovation, People Edition: How People Ops Grew Up
The People function grew up in the last decade. Four shifts changed the job, and most org charts haven't caught up. Here's what changed and what it means for the companies paying attention.
The State of Culture in 2026: Why Your People Strategy Is Your Most Urgent Business Priority
Only one in five employees worldwide is fully engaged at work. That's not an HR problem. That's a business catastrophe hiding in plain sight.
Stop Replanting Your Garden: Why One-Size-Fits-All Culture Kills Retention
Planting roses and ferns in the same soil and giving them the same amount of water will not result in them both thriving. The same goes for your people.
Are Your Managers Okay? Their Engagement Just Hit an All-Time Low.
Gallup's latest numbers are loud. Manager engagement is falling, and it's dragging everything else down with it. Here's what's happening and what to do about it.
Three Systems That Actually Reduce Turnover (and the Data to Prove It)
If your retention strategy starts and ends with compensation, you're solving the wrong problem. Here are three systems that move the needle.
Half Your Employees Are Looking to Leave. Stop Solving the Wrong Problem.
The gap between "a better opportunity" and why you're losing talent is likely costing you millions. Here's what the data says about what's really driving turnover.
11 HR Gaps We Find in Almost Every Small Organization
If you're running a small organization without dedicated HR support, you're probably managing people decisions on gut instinct. Here are the gaps that cost you the most.

Read all articles on LinkedIn →

Let's talk
Whether you're looking for an HR leader to join your team, want to talk culture strategy, or just want to connect, I'd love to hear from you.