In some cultures, there are gender-related issues that may make sense for someone else to be seen as the lead negotiator. Let's not get caught up in ego or discussions of bias. Let's just admit that the world is not a perfect place. While we all should work to make it a perfect place, free of bias, we still should maximize our potential to reach the goals we have set and be respectful of other cultures even if it conflicts with our own belief system. Leading is sometimes just pointing the way and a great leader is one who has cultivated her or his replacement which can step in at any time.
The point is that there are gender-related and cultural conditions in the world which are beyond your individual influence; rather than try to have the outward conditions play to you, sometimes you must play to those outward conditions.
Other interesting conditions more on a micro level are…men-to-men discussions have a greater propensity to disagree with each other — AKA one-upmanship. Women-to-women discussions have a greater tendency to agree with each other than men-to-men, all other things being equal.
