
Bachelor Creek Implements Intentionality in People Development With Leadr
Bachelor Creek was formed in 1845. Over the course of over 170 years, a lot has changed, but the focus on people has stayed the same.
When Joel Cogdell joined Bachelor Creek as the lead minister a little over a year ago, he worked with Taylor McFarland, Women’s Minister and Administrative Director, to cast a vision of intentional people development for the church’s staff and teams. The biggest obstacles standing in the way of that vision were communication and organization.
Bachelor Creek had a system for everything. They had a system for meetings. They had a system for note-taking during a meeting. They had a system for taking time off. They had a system for keeping track of personnel information. However, these systems did not work together.
Time was wasted as people searched their Google Drive or email folders for last week’s meeting notes. Finding an answer meant looking in five or six different locations. These small moments of wasted time took away from the intentional people development that Joel and Taylor really wanted to see.
They began looking for a system that would streamline their processes. In the end, it wasn’t the ease of having everything in one place that drew Joel and Taylor to Leadr. It was capability for intentional one-on-one meetings.
Staff meetings were a common occurrence at Bachelor Creek, but the idea of meeting one-on-one was revolutionary. It was the missing piece of the intentional people development that Joel and Taylor wanted to see in the church.
“You don’t ever intentionally not invest in people. The fact that you can set up those one-on-ones [in Leadr], be intentional, ask the questions; it really helps with the relationships in the office.”
- Taylor McFarland, Women’s Minister
Implementing one-on-one meetings at Bachelor Creek changed the culture of the office. There was a greater sense of trust between teams, staff, and elders. The time dedicated to one-on-one meetings was viewed as an investment that helped everyone to feel valued and made teams stronger and closer.
“Leadr is a one-stop shop for everything: Communication, development, team-building. It’s all integrated right there.”
- Joel Cogdell, Lead Minister
Access to feedback, goal-setting, and agenda tools meant that everyone was on the same page at all times. Staff members who needed time to process information before a meeting benefited from previewing questions and discussion topics beforehand. These collaboration tools enabled everyone to feel more confident walking into meetings that were more like two-way discussions than one-sided information dumps.
When asked what advice they would give to others considering Leadr, Joel said:
“The one thing that everyone has the same amount of is time. We only have 24 hours in a day. Everyone wants to maximize their time. Leadr allows you to spend time on the right things: the development of people and not the managing of tasks.”
Taylor added that:
“As you work through and learn things, Leadr has been really great about being right there on the message side of things, taking a quick phone call, coming on a quick video, making it super user-friendly.”
If you are looking for a tool that streamlines the paper trail and simplifies intentional people development, request a demo so that we can show you how Leadr can work for you.