Nothing causes bad decisions in organizations as often as poor listening...
“Bernie Ferrari’s work has led to a compelling instructional path for how to be a better business listener. His is not a set of theories, but rather a clear framework for how to use listening to get to better information and make better decisions.”
—Dominic Barton – Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
About Bernie Ferrari
Bernard T. Ferrari is the chairman and founder of Ferrari Consultancy and a twenty-year veteran of McKinsey & Co. as a leader of its North American Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice and the firm’s Health Care Practice. Prior to his career with McKinsey, he was a surgeon and chief operating officer of the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.
Power Listening
Many of the problems plaguing business today can be traced back to poor decision-making by the men and women in charge. This has had a terrible impact on our nation’s economy, our general productivity, and the personal finances of millions of Americans. The only way to avoid making poor decisions in the future—or at the very least attempt to make better ones—is to improve a skill that many in business lack, says consultant Bernie Ferrari. They must become better listeners.
POWER LISTENING: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All argues that listening is the most important skill that one can learn in business. As Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, writes in the book’s foreword, “listening may be the single most undervalued and undeveloped business skill, especially in an age of increasing uncertainty and fast-paced change.”
Becoming a good listener can be the difference between success and failure, yet few managers know where to begin or what steps to take. POWER LISTENING offers the unique view that listening is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and applied by anyone. Listening is not about making your colleagues feel good, but about problem solving and good decisions. Without the right information or the best ideas, managers inevitably make bad calls, with often disastrous result to them and their businesses.
Through real-world examples and take-aways that the reader can begin using immediately, POWER LISTENING shows how listening works and why it can be so powerful. Readers will learn how to identify bad listening habits, the folly of assumptions, and why it is crucial to stop talking in order to become a better listener. Then the book lays out a framework for sorting the information one gathers through listening into “mental filing drawers.” And finally, the book connects listening back to its ultimate purpose: improving business performance through better decision-making. The information gathered through listening can be drawn out and recombined in creative new ways to develop solutions to difficult problems.
POWER LISTENING is a fresh idea in business, and a must-read for anyone who manages others.
Praise for Bernie Ferrari
“Listening may be the single most undervalued and undeveloped business skill, especially in an age of increasing uncertainty and fast-paced change.”
Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric
“Bernie has broken down the art and skill of listening and created a framework all executives will find helpful. What Bernie has to say is worth listening to.”
James P. Gorman, Chairman and CEO, Morgan Stanley
“I believe that Bernie’s book will be well worth the time of any business person who wishes to improve his or her efficacy and judgment.”
Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
“Listening may be the single most undervalued and undeveloped business skill, especially in an age of increasing uncertainty and fast-paced change.”
Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric
“Not only will his insights be helpful to you; he has also clearly laid out practical ways by which you can improve your listening immediately and become a more successful manager.”
Steve Hasker, President, Global Media and Advertiser Solutions, The Nielsen Company
“Bernie Ferrari gets it... Take his sound and proven advice or bear the consequences!””
Roger Connors and Tom Smith, bestselling authors of The Oz Principle, How Did That Happen?, and Change the Culture, Change the Game
Watch
How to Engage in "Power Listening"
Types of Bad Listeners
Avoiding Assumptions
Respect in "Power Listening"
Contact
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