POWER LISTENING

Listening is harder than it looks - but it's the difference between business success and failure.

How does listening get things done? Good listeners will pick up signals that other people don't. A good listener will hear that his conversation partner is launching a new product without understanding what his company's goals are. A good listener will hear that a manager is attempting an ambitious project with a B-level team because that's all he's got at the moment. Bernard Ferrari, through his long and distinguished career, has noticed that business, at all levels, boils down to conversations and the difference between profit and loss, success and failure can be the difference between speaking and listening. By training our listening skills and creating a platinum ear, Ferrari offers a number of practical tips and tools to listening in your everyday business life, from identifying the different types of listeners to noting the conversation keywords all listeners must recognize. In addition to discussing active listening, this book also discusses how to connect good listening with good judgment. The skills Ferrari outlines will make you a stronger competitor on the business playing field of the future, where complexity, change and conflict will be especially tough on people who haven't learned to listen. Bernard Ferrari is chairman and founder of Ferrari Consultancy, which he established in 2008 following a nearly 20-year career as a director at McKinsey & Co. as a leader of the North American Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice and the firm'sHealth Care Practice. Prior to his career with McKinsey, Bernard was a surgeon and chief operating officer of the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans. He is a trustee of the Juilliard School and the University of Rochester, as well as a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.