Episodes

  • Don’t Lock In a Commission Plan Until You’ve Heard These 9 Rules

    Don’t Lock In a Commission Plan Until You’ve Heard These 9 Rules
    Feb 17 2026

    Incentive schemes are everywhere in business. Bonuses. Commissions. Short-term rewards designed to drive performance.

    And yet, for so many leaders, these beautifully designed schemes quietly fail to deliver what they promise. Worse, the unintended consequences often outweigh the benefits.

    In this episode of Lead to Grow, we unpack the dark art of incentive schemes and why so many well-intentioned reward structures distort behaviour, damage motivation, and fail to improve real performance.

    This is not an argument against incentives. It is a practical guide to when they work, when they fail, and how to design them intelligently if you choose to use them.

    You will learn:

    • Why leaders fall in love with incentive schemes and why they are often overused
      • The difference between improving performance and simply redirecting effort
      • Why money is a blunt instrument for motivation
      • The intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation equation and why it matters
      • How incentives can quietly reduce job satisfaction and engagement
      • When incentives actually make sense and when they backfire
      • Why complexity kills most incentive schemes
      • How poorly designed schemes distort behaviour and damage trust
      • The downside risks most leaders never anticipate
      • Why incentives rarely fix capability, culture, or leadership problems

    We also break down where incentive schemes can work, particularly in sales and output-driven roles, and how to think about:

    • Whether a role is genuinely suitable for incentives
      • Pay splits and what ratios make sense
      • Thresholds and why 75% matters
      • Caps vs uncapped schemes
      • Time horizons and payment frequency
      • Rules, edge cases, and why clarity matters
      • Retention vs attraction dynamics
      • Designing schemes that are actually self-funding

    Finally, we outline the hallmarks of a well-designed incentive scheme, including:

    • Job simplicity
      • Line of sight
      • Pay split alignment
      • Caps and escalation
      • Rules and edge cases
      • Time horizons
      • Thresholds
      • Management discretion
      • Base salary alignment

    The core message is simple:
    Incentive schemes are powerful, but they are blunt instruments. They are the exclamation mark, not the sentence.

    When used well, they create clarity and focus.
    When used poorly, they distort behaviour, undermine motivation, and create long-term problems disguised as short-term gains.

    If you are considering implementing an incentive scheme, or questioning whether your current one is actually working, this episode will help you avoid expensive trial and error.

    Connect with us:

    Tommy Sim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommysim/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/injecthrYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@injecthrInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/inject.hr/

    If you lead people or design reward structures, this episode will change how you think about money, motivation, and performance. Subscribe to Lead to Grow for more practical, human-centred leadership insights.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    27 mins
  • Why You Keep Hiring the Wrong Person (And How to Finally Fix It)

    Why You Keep Hiring the Wrong Person (And How to Finally Fix It)
    Feb 2 2026

    Why do so many leaders keep hiring the wrong people?

    In this episode of Lead to Grow, we break down why hiring is not a gut-feel decision, not a resume contest, and definitely not luck. Hiring is a prediction problem. And most leaders are playing it with the wrong rules, under the wrong pressure, using the wrong tools.

    We explore how common hiring processes feel logical on the surface but quietly set leaders up to fail, costing businesses months of lost productivity, damaged relationships, and expensive turnover.

    If you are responsible for building teams, scaling a business, or leading people, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about hiring.

    You will learn:

    • Why hiring is a probability game, not a personality judgement
      • The cognitive biases that quietly sabotage your hiring decisions, including affinity bias, confirmation bias, halo and horns, conformity bias, and contrast effects
      • Why leaders often hire based on experience and confidence, but fire based on attitude, aptitude, and behaviour
      • The critical difference between comparative hiring and absolute criteria
      • How hiring too quickly takes you out of the market before the right candidate even arrives
      • The “Venn Diagram of Assessment” and how to stack tools that actually predict performance
      • Why resumes and reference checks have far less predictive power than most managers believe
      • How structured behavioural interviews, personality profiles, and aptitude testing dramatically increase your odds
      • Why experience alone is one of the weakest predictors of future success
      • How Blue Ocean thinking applies to hiring and how to escape the red ocean of average candidates
      • Why dynamic criteria like learning agility, attitude, and behaviour outperform static criteria like years of experience
      • How great hiring fails without the right environment around it
      • Why hiring great people into a weak system does not fix the system, it exposes it

    This episode is not about hiring unicorns. It is about building a repeatable, defensible hiring system that gives you better outcomes consistently, not occasionally.

    If you are tired of feeling unlucky with hires, this is where the luck ends and leadership begins.

    Connect with us:

    Tommy Sim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommysim/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/injecthrYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@injecthrInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/inject.hr/

    If you lead people or plan to, this episode could save you months of lost time and thousands in wasted salary.

    Subscribe to Lead to Grow for more practical, psychology-driven leadership insights.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    31 mins
  • Poor Leadership Communication Has a Price. It’s $10k–$20k Per Employee Every Year

    Poor Leadership Communication Has a Price. It’s $10k–$20k Per Employee Every Year
    Jan 19 2026

    In this episode of Lead to Grow, Tommy Sim unpacks one of the most misunderstood and costly leadership skills: clarity in communication.

    Many leaders believe they are communicating clearly, yet research consistently shows that half of employees do not fully understand what is expected of them at work. The result is wasted effort, poor prioritisation, rework, anxiety, disengagement and in some cases, lost talent. Studies suggest this lack of clarity can cost businesses between $10,000 and $20,000 per employee, per year.

    Tommy explores where leadership communication commonly breaks down, why being direct is not the same as being understood, and how assumptions like “they should know” quietly undermine performance. Using practical examples, stories, and research, he introduces the Seven Pillars of Leadership Clarity and the Five Cs of Communication Clarity, giving leaders practical tools they can apply immediately.

    If you have ever thought, “But I already told them that”, this episode is for you.

    Connect with us:

    Tommy Sim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommysim/

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/injecthr

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@injecthr

    Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/inject.hr/

    Key Topics Covered

    • Why most leaders overestimate how clear they are
    • The hidden cost of poor leadership communication
    • Where clarity breaks down most often in organisations
    • Strategy and incentive schemes as common sources of confusion
    • Why “take initiative” and “be proactive” often fail
    • The Seven Pillars of Leadership Clarity
    • The Five Cs of Communication Clarity
    • How to check for understanding, not compliance
    • Why clarity is kindness, not control

    The Seven Pillars of Leadership Clarity

    1. Clarity of direction: where we are going and why
    2. Clarity of role: what my job actually is today
    3. Clarity of priorities: what matters most right now
    4. Clarity of performance expectations: how success is measured
    5. Clarity of communication and behaviour: what “good” looks like
    6. Clarity of development and growth: where my career is heading
    7. Clarity of the task itself: what success looks like this time

    The Five Cs of Communication Clarity

    • Clarity: Say exactly what you mean
    • Consistency: Reinforce the same message over time
    • Colour: Use stories, visuals, and examples
    • Connection: Tailor the message to your audience and build trust
    • Curiosity: Look for understanding, not agreement

    Episode Takeaways

    • Being direct is not the same as being understood
    • Clarity is measured by how a message lands, not how confidently it is delivered
    • Poor clarity creates waste, anxiety, and misalignment
    • Strategy and incentives often fail due to communication gaps, not design flaws
    • Leaders must take responsibility for others’ understanding
    • Asking “any questions?” is rarely enough
    • True clarity creates calm, confidence, and performance

    Timestamps / Chapters

    00:00 Welcome to Lead to Grow and the cost of poor clarity
    02:21 Why communication failures are so expensive
    04:43 Where leadership miscommunication shows up
    06:58 The problem with “take initiative”
    09:23 Why strategy often fails to land
    11:49 Incentive schemes and confusion
    14:17 The Seven Pillars of Leadership Clarity
    19:07 Common communication traps to avoid
    23:32 How to know if you are actually being clear
    25:59 The Five Cs of Communication Clarity
    28:25 Final reflections: clarity is kindness

    Who This Episode Is For

    • Leaders and managers
    • Business owners and founders
    • HR and people leaders
    • Team leads and executives
    • Anyone responsible for driving performance through people

    Listen, Watch, and Subscribe

    🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
    📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube
    ⭐ Leave a five-star review to help more leaders find the show

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    30 mins
  • Raise Your Floor to Become a Better Leader

    Raise Your Floor to Become a Better Leader
    Jan 6 2026
    In this episode of Lead to Grow, Tommy Sim explores one of the most overlooked ideas in leadership development: your floor. Most leaders focus on their ceiling. How inspiring, strategic, or high-performing they can be on their best days. But what if the real measure of leadership is how you show up on your worst days? This episode explains why raising your floor, how you behave under pressure, stress, fatigue, or frustration, shapes your team far more than occasional peak moments. If your team were asked what it’s like to work with you on your best day, the answers might sound great. But what about your worst day? Tommy explains why leadership is less about brilliance and more about consistency, predictability, and emotional safety. When leaders justify poor behaviour with pressure, seniority, or stress, the impact multiplies across the business. Using practical frameworks, relatable examples, and real-world leadership psychology, this episode helps leaders identify their “floor behaviours” and provides tools to consciously raise them. Connect with us: Tommy Sim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommysim/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/injecthr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@injecthr Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/inject.hr/ Key Concepts Covered Ceiling vs Floor Leadership Why avoiding destructive behaviours is just as important as building new leadership skills.Why senior leaders get less feedbackAs responsibility increases, accountability often decreases,making self-awareness critical.The ripple effect of leadership behaviourHow small emotional lapses create anxiety, uncertainty, and disengagement across teams.Predictability over perfection Why teams prefer consistency, even over charisma. Leadership Frameworks & Models Discussed John Maxwell’s Five Levels of Leadership Understanding how positional power can damage relationships if not managed consciously.DISC Personality Profiles How each leadership style has a unique “floor” under pressure:D (Dominant): Drive turns into force and aggressionI (Influential): Energy turns into chaos and confusionS (Steady): Harmony turns into avoidance and silenceC (Conscientious): Precision turns into withdrawal and paralysis Psychological Safety Referencing research by Amy Edmondson, highlighting how fear shuts down learning and performance.Consistency vs Talent Illustrated through sport, including LeBron James, whose greatness comes from a high floor, not just high peaks.Deliberate Practice Insights from Anders Ericsson on mastery being built through consistency, not flashes of brilliance. Practical Tools to Raise Your Floor Self-awareness in real time Identify your triggers before your reactions take over.Manage energy, not just behaviour Why protecting your energy is essential when you’re always “on show”.Open person policy (not open door policy) Being accessible with presence, not interruption.Swap behaviours, don’t suppress them Replace destructive reactions with intentional alternatives.The 4/10 conversation How having small, timely feedback conversations prevents explosive 9/10 confrontations.Values under pressure Why leadership credibility is tested when things aren’t going well. Listen & Watch Watch the full episode on YouTube: Lead to Grow with Inject: https://youtu.be/YOXw7CmQ7y4 If you enjoyed this episode, follow, subscribe, and leave a 5-star review. It helps more leaders find the show and build better workplaces. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    31 mins
  • Can Anyone Become a Great Leader?

    Can Anyone Become a Great Leader?
    Dec 22 2025
    Why is it that someone brilliant in their role can suddenly struggle the moment they step into leadership? It’s one of the most common – and painful – challenges in business. As we said in episode one, people can only be as good as the person above them, and today we dig into what that really means. In this episode, Tommy explores a question every founder, manager and HR leader eventually faces:Can anyone become a great leader… and if not, what do you do? Drawing on research from Gallup, SHL, Daniel Goleman and Aon Hewitt, plus decades of real-world people-leadership experience, this conversation unpacks why leadership isn’t a title, a promotion or a straight career ladder. It’s a responsibility — and not everyone is wired the same way. You’ll also learn how to assess leadership readiness, how to spot genuine potential, what to do when someone isn’t suited to managing people, and how to create a culture where both leaders and technical experts can thrive. Connect with us: Tommy Sim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommysim/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/injecthrYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@injecthrInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/inject.hr/What You’ll Learn in This Episode1. Why great employees don’t automatically make great leaders Promotions often reward technical brilliance, not people capability. It’s a trap most businesses fall into — and it creates confusion, disengagement and frustration on both sides. 2. The three respected leadership frameworks Tommy breaks down SHL, Daniel Goleman and Gallup to show the consistent attributes that make leadership effective:Vision, communication, influence and disciplined follow-through. 3. The Leadership Mirror: Seven questions to diagnose leadership behaviour A powerful self-assessment tool for founders and managers to evaluate whether someone is genuinely suited to people leadership. 4. The Leadership Potential Checklist A second lens to spot whether someone has the raw traits needed for leadership — even if they’re not demonstrating them yet. 5. What to do when someone struggles in a leadership role From timing conversations to creating psychological safety, Tommy shares a human-centred approach for exploring role clarity without shame or fear. 6. Why technical leadership can be a powerful alternative pathway Not everyone should lead people — and that’s not only okay, it can unlock even greater value inside a business. 7. The uncomfortable mirror every leader must hold up Culture, clarity and consistency start at the top. Your example shapes everyone below you. Key Takeaways Promoting top performers into leadership is common — but the skills rarely translate.Around 70% of team engagement is shaped directly by the manager.Leadership suitability can be assessed with simple A/B questions covering communication, vision, trust, awareness and consistency.Some people have strong leadership potential but lack capability or confidence — training and environment matter.Others are better suited to technical leadership, where impact comes from mastery, not managing people.Poor leadership affects engagement, profit, retention and performance — the data is overwhelmingly clear.Hard conversations about role fit can unlock career clarity rather than failure.Leadership development always begins with you, not the people below you. Research Mentioned Gallup: 70% of employee engagement is influenced by the direct manager.Aon Hewitt: High-engagement companies show 50% higher shareholder return, 33% lower turnover, and higher operating profit.SHL, Goleman, Gallup frameworks: Consistent themes around vision, communication, influence and disciplined execution. Leadership development, people management, how to be a great leader, promoting employees, leadership potential, Gallup leadership data, SHL leadership model, Daniel Goleman leadership styles, technical leadership, employee engagement, team performance, management coaching, leadership frameworks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    19 mins
  • You can’t logic your way through leadership & business

    You can’t logic your way through leadership & business
    Dec 5 2025
    In this episode, Tommy Sim, Managing Director of Inject HR, breaks down The People Principle, a practical framework that explains how human success drives business performance. He unpacks the paradoxes of modern leadership, why logic alone fails to change behaviours, and why so many businesses stay stuck despite hiring more people, adding perks or launching new initiatives. You’ll hear a powerful case study about a fictitious company, Harbour and Finch, a business with a great reputation but exhausted founders. The story shows that leaders can work hard and try new things, but without alignment between people and business strategy, nothing changes. The business stays busy but isn’t growing. Tommy then reveals how leaders can shift from firefighting to creating progress by putting into practice the six layers of an aligned people system. The episode finishes with a short and practical reflection exercise to help you identify your highest value activities and whether these align with what your business needs. Connect with us: Tommy Sim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommysim/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/injecthr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@injecthr Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/inject.hr/ What You’ll Learn Why leadership advice often contradicts itself• The paradoxes of empowering people while maintaining standards• Why logical solutions fail when dealing with human behaviour• The three pillars of the People Principle• How misaligned systems cause 94 percent of people problems• A step-by-step breakdown of the six drivers of human-centred business performance• A practical reflection exercise that instantly reveals where performance is leaking Key Moments1. Why Leadership Feels Confusing Tommy explains why so much leadership advice clashes, creating confusion for both new and experienced leaders. Empower people but never let standards slip. Be transparent but not too transparent. Hire slowly but move quickly. These paradoxes create noise that distracts leaders from what actually works. 2. Introducing The People Principle The People Principle centres on the idea that human success drives business success, but only when leaders know what really enables people to perform at their best. Tommy challenges the myth that people alone are a company’s greatest asset. Instead, it's the system around those people that determines success or stagnation. 3. The Harbour & Finch Case Study A fictitious architectural lighting company becomes the lens for understanding why businesses struggle even when they hire more people or add more programs. Misaligned hiring, confused leadership pathways, underperformance, and unsustainable firefighting create burnout and declining results. Incentives, pay rises and perks fail because the system itself is broken. 4. The Three Pillars of the People Principle Real success requires an integrated approach over time, not scattered initiatives.Logic alone does not shift human behaviour.Your people strategy must align to your business strategy. 5. The Six Layers of an Effective People System Tommy unpacks the six components that create long-term business performance:• Strategy • Capabilities • Structure • People • Leadership • CultureHarbour and Finch turned their business around by aligning each layer toward one strategic goal: premium design with faster turnaround. 6. Why Most People Problems Are Actually System Problems Ninety-four percent of performance issues come from the system, not the individual. Misalignment creates friction, wastes energy and forces leaders into constant firefighting. When capability aligns with strategy, growth compounds and momentum becomes sustainable. 7. A Practical Exercise on High-Value Activities Tommy guides listeners through an audit of the top four to seven tasks that truly drive performance. Leaders often spend their time doing low-value work, fixing mistakes or stepping into other roles, which drains energy and restricts growth. Identifying the gap between what you do and what you should do can transform performance quickly. Ask yourself:• Where are you trying to logic your way out of a people problem?• Which systems in your business are working against each other?• What high-value work should you be doing more of, and what’s stopping you? Connect & Subscribe If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to Lead to Grow.Please leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help more leaders find this show. Watch the full episode on YouTube.Search: Lead to Grow with Inject and subscribe so you never miss an episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    16 mins