Hi Reader,
This week on the Gentle Power podcast (GentlePowerPodcast.com), we hosted Tallulah Le Merle. Tallulah spent seven years as a management consultant at Kearney, has done fractional COO and advisory work with AI scale-ups, and is now a partner at a conscious-tech investment firm called Fifth Era. She also has a book coming out called The Case for Hope in the Age of AI.
The thread running through all of it is a deep, practical fluency in human dynamics. This turned out to make for one of the more genuinely interesting conversations we've had on the podcast.
The negotiation thread kept weaving in and out of some bigger ideas: cultural differences in how power shows up, why authenticity is an actual strategic asset, what it means to hold your ground without becoming a wall, and a concept Tallulah calls "WOO".
Listen to the full episode here: YouTube | Spotify | Apple
1. WOO is a real skill, not a personality trait
Tallulah took a StrengthsFinder assessment and her top five strengths were: humor, communication, empathy, orchestration, and WOO.
WOO stands for Winning Others Over. And she was quick to separate it from manipulation. The mechanism is empathy first: really reading what matters to the person across from you, then tailoring how you show up and what you say so that it lands in their world rather than yours.
"I'm using language you've already used with me. I'm not like, hey, I'm over here and you need to come across this bridge to me. I'm walking back to you and bringing you across with me."
That's a skill beyond charm, and it's directly transferable to negotiations. If you're going into a negotiation thinking about what you need, you're missing half the work.
2. Power looks different in different cultures
Tallulah grew up in the Bay Area but spent twelve years working in Europe, primarily in the UK. She noticed a real difference in how power operates.
In the US, she described power as more extroverted, more direct, and more visible. In British and other European corporate contexts, she saw a different style: leaders who spoke rarely but with enormous gravitas precisely because they didn't speak constantly.
"When they do speak, it has so much weight."
Both approaches work as long as you're being authentic. Performing a style of power that isn't yours will leak in all the ways that matter.
3. Authenticity isn't a soft idea. It's a negotiation asset.
We talk a lot about this, but it was nice to hear it come from someone whose whole career has been in high-stakes professional negotiation.
We got into the topic of lying in negotiations, especially the common (and bad) advice to fabricate a competing offer. You never want to do this because recruiters negotiate every day. They have enough data points to know when something feels off.
Lying doesn't just fail ethically. It fails strategically. Offers have been rescinded for exactly this.
Authenticity, on the other hand, creates trust before you even get to terms. People want to do business with people they believe.
4. The rule of 3 in consulting negotiations
One of the most useful tactical frameworks Tallulah shared came from her years managing client relationships in consulting.
When a client brings you a new need or asks for something outside the original scope, you don't immediately treat it as a negotiation. You let it come up three times.
First time: hold the space, acknowledge it, help them think through whether they can solve it themselves. Second time: gently probe whether it's actually within scope. Third time: now it's a real conversation, and you address it deliberately.
"Let people ask three times before you really take it seriously as something that needs to be negotiated."
This connects to something we teach our clients all the time: don't take things at face value. A company's first offer is rarely their final one. An early "no" is often not a final one either. The Rule of 3 is just a more systematic version of that patience.
5. Holding firm without shutting down
Tallulah talked about how the best negotiators aren't rigid. They're clear.
"This is what I know I'm worth. Do you see that? Yes or no. And then I would walk away."
That's a very different posture from bracing for a fight. You're not trying to beat someone. You're stating your position clearly and seeing if there's alignment. If there isn't, that's also useful information.
Tallulah also shared an example from her own fractional work: a startup she loved that couldn't meet her full rate. Rather than walking away or silently resenting the gap, the parties acknowledged the constraint. They worked together to find a creative solution that fulfilled the needs of all involved. That's negotiation too. But you need to be clear about your values and your priorities first.
6. Negotiations are a pie-expanding exercise, not a zero-sum fight
One of the things Tallulah pushed back on was the mental model most people bring to negotiations: that both sides are fighting over a fixed thing, and for you to win, the other side has to lose.
"People think of it as this really intense, aggressive, zero-sum fight. Each side is already against each other."
She prefers a collaborative frame. Think about what matters to them. Find the places where your interests genuinely overlap. Add value where you can, especially when it costs you nothing.
We liked the way she tied it back to her WOO strengths: if you go in genuinely curious about the other side, the whole dynamic of the conversation shifts. You're not there to take. You're there to find something that works.
7. Vulnerability is not weakness. It's a position of power.
This came up in the context of personal negotiations, dating specifically, but it landed as a wider point.
"If you just go shoot your shot, ask for your needs, share your wants, that just shows you're so anchored in yourself."
Not shooting your shot because you're afraid of rejection is not caution. It's fear running the decision. That applies whether you're asking someone out or asking for a raise.
Being clear about what you want, and being willing to hear no, is one of the most underrated things you can bring to any negotiation. It signals that you're not negotiating from desperation.
Listen to the full episode here: YouTube | Spotify | Apple
Connect with Tallulah and her upcoming book at tallulahlemerle.com.
Best,
Gerta & Alex
Founders, YourNegotiations.com
P.S. Are you job searching or have upcoming negotiations?
Book a free call with us, where we’ll learn more about your situation, offer some free tips, and explore if we’re a good fit to work together: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call
P.P.S. Know someone interested in negotiations?
Send them our way and we’ll thank you with $250 for each person who becomes a client. No cap.
A quick intro or an email to alex@yournegotiations.com works.