Some workplaces expect you to leave life at the door. Others make room for it.
Before Becca Martin became Chief Operating Officer at The Developer Society, she worked in education – a highly structured world where people are expected to fall in line, and for good reason.
Her next move took her somewhere very different: a not-for-profit digital agency, run as a co-op, helping mission-led teams build smarter, more sustainable digital services. Leading inside a co-op taught her to collaborate, to try things and adjust, to disagree comfortably and to turn shared ideas into real change.
Add a leadership programme that rewired how she thinks about decisions (and two children who ask big questions with zero prep time) and you get a leader whose focus isn’t driving profit up. It’s helping her team do their best work for the people they serve.
In this conversation, we explore:
- How leading within a co-op shaped her people-first approach
- Why separating decisions from outcomes, and letting go of sunk costs, helps teams keep moving
- What a people-friendly (and parent-friendly) culture looks like day to day, from “chemistry calls” in hiring to a team turning into dragons and strawberries on a call to cheer up her poorly son
- The lessons parenthood has taught her about honest conversations and adapting when plans change
