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When CEOs began to make as much as tsars, they should have

known they would eventually reap the whirlwind. Instead, many

became increasingly arrogant. In 2001 and 2002, one high-flying

company after another crashed, in a spreading scandal about

accounting irregularities, illegal loans, and insider trading. The

march of shame included Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Global

Crossing, and ImClone—some of their top executives were in-

dicted and led off in handcuffs. Most shocking of all may have

been the prospect of domestic goddess Martha Stewart facing

criminal charges for selling her ImClone stock shortly before it

was announced that its much anticipated new cancer drug would

not get FDA approval. Her downfall was anticipated with un-

seemly glee by people who joked about prison-striped wall paper

and stenciling her cell, a case of taking-pleasure-in-the-pain-of-

others that one wag termed Marthafreude.

Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson used to hail friends

he had not seen for a long time with the greeting: “What’s be-

come clear to you since we last met?” One thing that has become

clearer than ever to me is that integrity is the most important

characteristic of a leader, and one that he or she must be pre-

pared to demonstrate again and again. Too many leaders—cor-

porate heads but church officials and leaders in countless other

fields as well—forgot that they were under scrutiny and that they

could be called to account at any time. They forgot that some-

thing’s being legal doesn’t mean it’s right. And they forgot that

what the public giveth, it can take away. Just ask Martha Stewart.

The corporate scandals have had a devastating effect on the

stock market, one that is liable to persist long after the head-

lines about Enron and other rogue companies have been for-

gotten. Trillions of dollars of wealth were destroyed by men

who themselves walked away with princely severance packages.

So pervasive was the cloud over American business that Intel’s

On Becoming a Leader

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