In part one of this four-part series on techniques for professional women, I discussed the importance of professional women learning how to interrupt when in meetings with a lot of male energy. We stopped at the point at which you have made your first foray into the fray and your ideas have not been immediately accepted. So now we move on to the next phase.

The art of repeating from a different angle

So what do you do if your ideas are ignored or discounted?

How to view it: The male culture is based on cooperation by competition. I know this seems like an oxymoron to the female perspective. My son just got X-Box 360 live. This allows him to play interactive computer war games in a virtual world against other people (95 percent of them are male). He is in heaven! From the male perspective, the best ideas are forged in the crucible of competition. So the men expect the other players, including themselves, to fight for their ideas. Whereas the female perspective is, the best ideas are forged by listening and sharing as a group. In fact, both strategies are necessary. Generally men need to learn to listen more and women need to learn to speak up more.

How to do it: First, lets talk about what you should not do. Professional women should not become angry or defensive. You should not complain that you are not being listened to. You should not say that you are not being understood. Do not take it personally.

All of these reactions will generate a lot of negativity. Even if the men do listen, they will feel criticized and resentful. You will be inadvertently increasing the negatively charged awareness of your gender differences.

Instead, you need to feel comfortable repeating yourself from different perspective. For instance you can say, "Here is another angle on the problem," followed by a restatement of your point. Another excellent variation is, "Lets look at it another way," or "Here is another important point (that has not been considered)."

In any case, the goal is to use the opening clause that states that there is another reason to continue to fight for your point of view, immediately followed by your point of view. Do not say. "There is another angle on this problem," followed by a pause, expecting that someone is going to ask you to expound on that point. You need to immediately state the point.

In order to execute this plan, professional women need to be prepared. This means that when you are going t into a meeting you should be prepared. For each central point that you want to make, you need to do the following. First, be able to state the point succinctly. "We need to increase our marketing budget by 15 percent." Second, you need to prepare three different reasons or perspectives to support your point of view. Third, rehearse each reason. So when you enter the meeting, you have at your fingertips at least three different ways to make each of your points. When your first idea is not accepted, you come back with angle two followed by angle three, if necessary.