????“賺大錢沒什么竅門，只要你一門心思就想著這件事，你就能賺大錢?！?/span>

????在奧遜·威爾斯擔(dān)任導(dǎo)演、威爾斯和赫爾曼·J·曼凱維奇擔(dān)任編劇的電影《公民凱恩》中，劇中人伯恩斯坦這樣評(píng)價(jià)查爾斯·福斯特·凱恩。凱恩失去了所有自己珍視的東西——朋友、家庭和自尊，因?yàn)閷?duì)他來說，積累財(cái)富比誠信更重要。

????東芝的丑聞讓我想起了伯恩斯坦的這句話。調(diào)查機(jī)構(gòu)發(fā)現(xiàn)，2008年以來該公司將利潤(rùn)虛增了三倍，東芝公司CEO兼社長(zhǎng)田中久雄隨即辭職。《財(cái)富》上周的相關(guān)報(bào)道中引述了調(diào)查機(jī)構(gòu)出具的報(bào)告，內(nèi)容令人震驚，其中寫道：“東芝的公司文化是不能質(zhì)疑管理層的決定……員工被迫采取不當(dāng)?shù)挠涃~方法，比如推遲披露虧損，或?qū)⒛承┏杀卷?xiàng)目計(jì)入隨后幾年的賬目中。”

????究其根本，東芝出現(xiàn)丑聞的原因是沒有把人品當(dāng)成重要的職場(chǎng)問題認(rèn)真對(duì)待。但就像我中學(xué)時(shí)的樂隊(duì)指揮告訴過我的那樣，“撥亂反正”對(duì)東芝來說不算太晚。要想讓你的公司避免陷入東芝那樣的境地，只要遵循下列三條指南。

????1. 依品行招人。

????公司招人時(shí)一般會(huì)從兩方面考察應(yīng)聘者，那就是知識(shí)和技能。在這方面，東芝和其他企業(yè)別無二致。看看它網(wǎng)站上的招聘廣告，就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這樣的例子不勝枚舉。

????我在上面隨便找了一條，招聘的是銷售代表。無可否認(rèn)，銷售代表需要對(duì)業(yè)務(wù)有所了解，而且能進(jìn)行有效地溝通。但從其中的職位描述來看，似乎只要具備這些條件就能做好這份工作。

????但情況并非如此。就“好”的最深刻、最重要的涵義而言，一位好的銷售代表還要誠實(shí)、可靠而且勇敢。換句話說就是應(yīng)該品格高尚。

????大家真的希望自己的銷售團(tuán)隊(duì)成員都是些極其善于溝通，業(yè)務(wù)敏感性高人一籌，但不誠實(shí)、不負(fù)責(zé)任、不愿和“壞”客戶針鋒相對(duì)的人嗎？當(dāng)然不想。那么，招聘廣告中為什么沒有把誠實(shí)、可靠和勇敢列為應(yīng)聘條件呢？

????同時(shí)，應(yīng)當(dāng)講誠信的不光是銷售代表。企業(yè)各個(gè)層面上的人員都應(yīng)如此。如果在品格方面沒有原則，公司就有可能聘用像查爾斯·福斯特·凱恩那樣純粹受利潤(rùn)驅(qū)使的人。正是這樣的思維給東芝帶來了麻煩。

????在各個(gè)領(lǐng)域，大多數(shù)公司都存在過分關(guān)注知識(shí)和技能的問題。把品格和才干同時(shí)納入考慮范圍是招到更出色員工的途徑之一。

????2. 依品行提拔人。

????去年秋天，我曾為一家《財(cái)富》100強(qiáng)公司提供咨詢服務(wù)。該公司首席執(zhí)行官在午餐會(huì)上的講話讓我肅然起敬。他介紹了五名以這樣或那樣的方式展現(xiàn)出良好品質(zhì)的員工。其中一位年輕人，姑且稱他為埃米利亞諾，在該公司門店的停車場(chǎng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了一枚價(jià)值1.5萬美元的鉆戒。他花了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間來尋找失主，后者發(fā)現(xiàn)鉆戒失而復(fù)得時(shí)欣喜若狂。

????埃米利亞諾的謙遜尤其令人感動(dòng)。我在之前談及泰勒·斯威夫特的《財(cái)富》專欄文章中曾提到過這種品質(zhì)。埃米利亞諾在人頭攢動(dòng)的會(huì)場(chǎng)中對(duì)大家說：“我只是做了自己的工作。”我相信，會(huì)場(chǎng)里不止我一個(gè)人在想“我應(yīng)該像他一樣?！?/p>

????埃米利亞諾贏得了盛贊，拿到了獎(jiǎng)金，同事們起立為他鼓掌歡呼。這位CEO確實(shí)讓員工看到了誠實(shí)和謙遜的人對(duì)該公司的成功有多么重要?？梢韵嘈?，埃米利亞諾會(huì)迅速得到提拔。

????想象一下，如果東芝（以及你的公司）在決定晉升哪些員工時(shí)像這家公司一樣考慮員工的品質(zhì)，情況會(huì)怎么樣呢？

????“Well, it’s no trick to make a lot of money, if all you want is to make a lot of money.”

????So said Mr. Bernstein about Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Kane lost everything he held dear—his friends, his family, and his self-respect—because accumulating wealth was more important to him than integrity.

????I’m reminded of Bernstein’s observation in light of the latest corporate scandal, this one involving the Japanese business colossus Toshiba. As Geoffrey Smith reported in Fortune this week, Toshiba’s CEO and president Hisao Tanaka resigned after investigators discovered that since 2008 the company had intentionally overstated its profits by a factor of three. Smith quotes the investigator’s disturbing report: “Toshiba had a corporate culture in which management decisions could not be challenged … Employees were pressured into inappropriate accounting by postponing loss reports or moving certain costs into later years.”

????At its core, the Toshiba scandal is about the failure to take character seriously in the workforce. But it’s not too late for Toshiba to, as my high school band director Melvin Meads used to tell me, “straighten up and fly right.” Your own organization would do well to heed the following three guidelines for avoiding a Toshiba-like mess.

????1. Hire for character.

????Employers generally look at two areas in a job candidate’s profile: knowledge and skill. Toshiba is no different in this regard. Take a look at the job listings on the company’s website, and you’ll see plenty of examples of this.

????I selected one at random: sales representative. No one can deny that sales reps need to know something about business and be able to communicate effectively. But judging by the job description, these qualities appear to be all that one needs to do the job well.

????That’s not true, however. A good sales agent, in the deepest, most meaningful sense of “good,” is also honest, accountable, and courageous. In other words, he or she is a person of high character.

????Would you really want your sales team to be made up of men and women with great communication skills and superior business acumen but who were also dishonest, irresponsible, and unwilling to stand up to a corrupt client? Of course not. Why, then, aren’t honesty, accountability, and courage listed in the job description?

????And it’s not only sales reps who ought to be people of integrity. The same applies at every level of the organization. Without scrupulous regard to character, companies run the risk of hiring candidates who are solely driven, like Charles Foster Kane, by the bottom line. And that’s exactly the kind of thinking that got Toshiba intro trouble.

????Focusing obsessively on knowledge and skills is a problem in most companies in every field. Taking character as well as competence into account is one way to hire better people.

????2. Promote for character.

????Last fall I consulted with a Fortune 100 company, and a lunchtime presentation by the CEO left me awestruck. He introduced five employees who had demonstrated high character in one way or another. A young man whom I’ll call Emiliano had found a diamond ring worth $15,000 in the store’s parking lot. He spent a considerable amount of time tracking down its owner, who was beside herself with joy upon getting the ring returned.

????Emiliano’s humility, a trait I discussed in an earlier Fortune column about Taylor Swift, was especially touching. “I was just doing my job,” he told a packed auditorium. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in that room who thought, “I want to be like that guy.”

????Emiliano received a prestigious award, a bonus, and a standing ovation from his peers. The CEO makes sure that employees see how important honest and humble people are to the success of the business. You can bet that Emiliano is on the fast track at that company for a promotion.

????Imagine if Toshiba—and your organization too?—paid this kind of attention to the character of its employees when making decisions about who to promote.