The Workforce Therapy Files team attended the 2025 Kentucky SHRM Conference, in Louisville. We took the opportunity to interview over 20 professionals who stopped by our booth.

In this segment, Jason interviews Brian Ingle. He’s the Executive Director of Planning and Management for the State Auditor’s Office. Brian adds that his passion lies in leadership, training new leaders, and helping supervisors transition from being button pushers to being true leaders of people.

Brian discusses how the transition from a specialized role to a supervisory position is a big shift. To help new supervisors succeed and prevent them from failing during this transition, he created an acronym designed for the first 90 days in the role: RELAX.

The RELAX Acronym for New Supervisors:

1. R (Role): New supervisors must understand that their role is going to change. It is no longer about pushing buttons; instead, leaders must add value to people and help them to push the buttons better.

2. E (Engagement): This component emphasizes relationship building, as leadership is relationship. Engagement means getting to know employees on an individual level, including personal details such as the names of their spouse, how many children they have, and their important days. Brian notes that if leaders invest in their people, the people will invest in them.

3. L (Link up): In the first 90 days, leaders need to conduct many meetings, not because people love meetings, but to foster the relationship piece. During these meetings, expectations must be clearly articulated: the leader's expectations of themselves, their expectations of the employee, and the employee's expectations of the leader and of themselves. Brian points out that people often have expectations—even if they claim not to—which surface when they go home and say, "it's not what I expected". Therefore, the link up process requires putting those expectations into words.

4. A (A): Ingle was unable to recall the "A" component during the recording, though the host suggested they might discuss it if Brian were to return as a full episode guest.

5. X (X factor): The "X factor" is the unique quality the individual brings to the role, the reason they were hired. Brian stresses that new leaders should avoid trying to fill the shoes of their predecessor or trying to be like everyone else. He encourages tapping into this unique factor because the organization may have hired the person specifically because they are different. He quotes Andy Stanley: "Your marginally improved weaknesses will never be as great as your fully exploited strengths." Leaders should play to their strengths and not be afraid to be unique, as they might be in that position precisely to say that thing, to think that thought, to have that idea. Jason agreed that the X factor is essential because everybody brings something different to the table and can improve things in their own way.

Question for the Next Guest:

As the conversation concludes, Brian provides a question for the next guest at the conference: "Why do you wake up in the morning? Why are you doing this?". He explains that while everyone works for money, life is "too short to do something that you hate". Brian suggests that if work is not someone's passion, they should find their passion, noting that it would be much better to get paid for doing what you love.

To learn more, visit:

· Website: www.auditor.ky.gov/Pages/index.aspx

Brian Ingle, thanks for stopping by to speak with us!

That’s where we’ll leave the conversation for today. Before we close the file, we invite you to reach out to us with questions, suggestions or other comments. We’d love to hear from you.

Need Help Supporting Your Company’s Recruiting and Staffing Goals?

We’re here to help. You can contact us via our individual websites, depending on your specific needs or questions:

· Jamie Swaim, SPHR – www.ParcelKnows.com

· Molley Ricketts – www.IncipioWorks.com

· Jason Heflin – www.CrowdSouth.com

We hope you found this file insightful and helpful. Thank you for listening!