At Enron, as at a host of other firms with recently tarnished reputations, those individuals most disgraced in scandal have been the ones once regarded as the smartest in the room.

Surprising? Not for experts in ethics.

Though everyone struggles to recognize his or her own ethical lapses, the task of catching one's own errors in judgment becomes especially challenging for high achievers, whether they run major companies or head up a small household. Reasons are several, but one looms largest: People in authority tend to lack the honest input that everyone needs to maintain a moral life.

"It's not so much a matter of one being intoxicated by the power. It's [a matter of] one being sheltered from the feedback," says Doug Lennick, an organizational consultant and coauthor of "Moral Intelligence" with Fred Kiel (Wharton, 2005).

In observing the past decade's rash of scandals, ethicists see a pattern of self-delusion among smart people in a range of roles. Former Chicago Tribune columnist and commentator Armstrong Williams lost his job last year after taking $240,000 from the Department of Education to promote particular policies. Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers is to be sentenced this month after his conviction in an $11 million fraud case. He could spend the rest of his life in prison. Earlier this year, defrocked priest Paul Shanley, once esteemed as a gifted youth-outreach worker, was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison for child rape. The list goes on.

People at all levels tend to see their own behavior as moral, says Michael Josephson, founder of the Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles. But the successful have a particular stake in maintaining a positive self-image, so they often evade two potentially humbling questions: "Is what I'm doing deceptive?" and "Am I resolving dilemmas in a self-interested way?"

Reading about frequent episodes of ruin, however, may not encourage many individuals to examine their own destructive habits because most don't want to face them, according to Sydney Finkelstein, author of "Why Smart Executives Fail." Yet the wise one, he says, will cultivate a network of frank talking sources as well as a personal capacity to hear and respond to criticism.

"Acknowledging to the world that you're not quite as successful as you thought, and as everyone else thought, is unacceptable" for too many successful people, says Finkelstein, professor of leadership and strategy at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. "That's when the fudging of numbers begins."

Having judicious confidants around to serve as sounding boards for moral dilemmas is essential, sources agree, especially for the most accomplished of individuals. But not everyone agrees on the best way to use such a network.

One school of thought regards moral decisionmaking as tricky ground where all conclusions should be subject to rethinking, and the search for moral direction is enhanced by multiple voices. In this camp, "all cats are gray, and it's a sign of maturity to recognize that," according to the Rev. Steven Shussett, associate for spiritual formation at the Presbyterian Church (USA). In his view, sin tempts all, and therefore decisions involving the fate of others should always include a measure of caution and self-doubt. After all, he says, sinners run the risk of being wrong and not knowing it.

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