The 20 Sep 2011 edition of the Business Times carries a story about increasing gender diversity in boardrooms. Some think that setting targets for this is the way to go. Others think that enforcing quotas would be more effective. What is YOUR view? Do you support having more women on boards?

Personally, I've never had any issue working with women. My wife is a director in my own outfit, and although she doesn't participate directly in the business, she is certainly a big part of the decision-making process. I value her inputs, as she provides insights that I would not otherwise have, and her support has no price tag. Also, I've had the privilege of working with women combat trainers in my previous line of work. I never saw them as anything other than fellow soldiers. When I assigned tasks to them, I expected the same degree of professionalism and dedication that I would have expected from their male counterparts. I am grateful that they were as good at manning machineguns as they were at applying mascara. Of course, they had a different set of hygiene requirements, and we helped to take care of those, too. Other than that, they were valuable members of my team, no doubts about that.

What I AM concerned about is this whole hype of "Fairness" and "Equality" that pervades so much of our psyche, from female directors to mandatory percentages of locals in the workforce if you happen to set up an enterprise in a foreign land. Have we forgotten to assign the best person for the job at hand? Knowing as much as we do about the importance of fully functional and integrated teams, do we still impose quotas with regard to race, language, religion and gender? How is it that we have become so proficient at embracing diversity in cross-cultural organizations but have forgotten to develop the relationships between teams and working groups? Enough of this farcical mumbo-jumbo! If indeed "The best man for the job is a woman", and she happens to be willing and available, give her the job! However, if there is a man eminently suited for the job at hand, do we need to be forced to pass him over simply because we need to fulfill our quota of women in that particular organization or project group? Again, this is yet another example of a leadership cop-out that will further weaken our society's already fragile fabric.

We need to put our foot down and insist on quality over equality, justice over fairness, and great leadership over compliance with convention. We then get the privilege of standing up for our convictions as we seek to serve our generation in our time. That time is now. Be a leader! You decide!

Go well!