Compliance Perspectives

By Adam Turteltaub Fast Company recently ran an article with the headline “Research Shows High Performing Employees are More Prone to Unethical Mistakes.” It’s both an alarming and an intriguing proposition. To understand more I spoke with Richard Bistrong, CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, who co-authored the article along with Ron Carucci and Dina Smith. Why are high performers potentially so dangerous? For one, he explains, success tends to block scrutiny. People don’t like to question it and are just grateful to see so much of it. They may not think to look or not want to look too deeply. Another challenge is that the more successful people are, the more addicted to success they may become, something Richard knows from his own experience. The challenge of being a corporate hero, he explains, is that once you earn that status, you typically don’t want to give it up and may end up going down what has been called the rabbit hole of success. At the same time, the company may be exerting pressure on the