Rather, I will ask questions designed to help you explore your thoughts on an issue fraught with more gray areas than black and white. The answers you provide will increase your self-awareness and understanding of the opposite sex much more than advice from someone else. Examining how your parents and others close to you interacted across the gender line can provide insight to your own approach. Recognizing that such behavior is learned may make it easier for you to change. Many of us act differently when we're frustrated, angry or afraid.
Some individuals are more assertive, while others retreat.
Understanding when and how you get into stress patterns can help you figure out how to break out of them and change your behavior. It's important to understand your intention for doing or saying something may not be what the other person picks up on. No matter how great a communicator you are, this is likely to happen more often than most of us are ready to admit. For whatever reason, this phenomenon seems to occur most often during cross-gender negotiations. Expecting it to happen will help you both prevent misunderstandings.