4 Might the emphasis on core leadership behaviours be handled in a different way? What do you suggest? In their three years at Melbourne's Vreeland Pharmaceuticals, Vitorio Nuños and Gary Shaw had rarely crossed paths, and they had exchanged no more than a dozen sentences. But here they were, seat mates on a plane headed to company headquarters in Sydney. And suddenly, they had a lot to say to each other.

'What I'd like to know is why we're wasting a trip to Sydney to thrash out some new policies about leader competencies,' Vitorio said.

'Because Connie Wyland is HR at Vreeland, and you and I both know that policies and models and all touchy-feely people stuff is the lifeblood of HR,' Gary replied. 'I also think a lot of this is the result of panic on the heels of the scandals in sales last year.'