????也許你本人就是一個成就卓著的人，也和其他很多成功人士一樣，私下里都認為，最初驅使你攀上成功巔峰的一些因素同時也會導致負面效應。你受到的教育可能讓你感到永遠不要滿足于已有的成就，或者讓你已不再被他人的評判所左右。意識到這種壓力大有裨益，因為這樣你就能察覺到其他人身上存在的壓力，知道如果不加以控制，它們可能就會導致不道德的行為。

????董事會吸納成員應秉持善于思考，永遠追求高標準的人選，他們能理解和制衡首席執行官的本能動機。董事會成員要清楚，當個人需要公開承認失敗時會產生強大的自我保全意識，理解無力感導致的內心掙扎。清楚這一點后，聰明的董事會成員會幫助安全感較差的首席執行官們建立起安全文化，允許承認失誤、適度的冒險和創新。

????奧林巴斯和明富環球高管們的深層個人動機對于深諳人性的人來說并不陌生。把這些人看成是異類，這種想法很有誘惑力，因為它會讓我們覺得安全。但真正的安全來自于承認這些是人類共有的天性，同時打造一種制衡而不是忽視人性傾向的企業文化。

????埃莉諾?布洛克斯漢姆現任董事會咨詢機構公司價值及治理聯盟（The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance，http://thevaluealliance.com)的首席執行官。

????Perhaps you are a high achiever who, like many other high achievers, would describe, in private, that some of the influences that originally pushed you have negative undertones. Your upbringing may have caused you to feel your accomplishments were never enough -- or you may have excelled to avoid the pain of others' judgments. Your awareness of these pressures is helpful because you can spot them in others, recognizing that, if left unchecked, they can lead to unethical behavior.

????Wise board recruitment requires the selection of thoughtful, high achieving board members who can understand and balance the CEO's natural motivations. These board members recognize the powerful influence of self-preservation when it comes time to publicly admit failure, and the internal battle to fight feelings of inadequacy. Armed with this awareness, savvy board members help less secure CEOs build safe cultures that allow admission of failure, healthy risk-taking, and innovative expression.

????The deeper motivations of individuals at Olympus and MF Global are not foreign to students of human nature. To believe that those people are different from us is appealing because such beliefs make us feel safe. But real safety comes from recognizing these traits in others and ourselves and constructing an organization with a culture that can balance rather than ignore these all-too-human tendencies.

????Eleanor Bloxham is CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance (http://thevaluealliance.com), a board advisory firm.