The Chief Always Listens First

A book that goes beyond simply increasing awareness or reminding us of the importance of active listening, particularly in hierarchical situations within organizations.

As always with Olivier ZARA, the reflections, the examples based on real-life situations and the contributions in terms of methods are operational and clear.

I finished reading this book with a stronger awareness, not of the importance of listening - we all know that - but of the tools I'll be able to put into practice and test with my team.

Xavier Richard, Branch Manager, Caisse d'Épargne CEPA

Excellent book: clear, intelligent and useful. Well done!

Dominique Turcq, management consultant and futurist, founder of the Boostzone Institute

This book allows you to grasp the full power of the word listening. More than a behavior, it is a strategic know-how to reach decision-making excellence and operational excellence. Beyond simple listening, Olivier Zara proposes a complete approach with simple and powerful protocols such as feedforward to durably develop engagement and agility.

Florent Lafarge, Certified Coach, Director of Employee Engagement Operations at L'Oréal

Olivier Zara brilliantly explains how to revisit listening, often overused, and turn it into an operational practice and know-how. He highlights the power of the process and the virtue of the protocol by proposing two techniques: operational listening and feedforward. These techniques contribute not only to operational and decision-making excellence, but also to corporate well-being. They will foster the engagement and talent retention!

Sylvie Pruvost, Executive Coach in creative and collaborative dynamics - Consultant in HR strategy, career and talent management

Always inspiring and refreshing, the literary output of Olivier Zara is astonishing. He manages to put a light touch on themes related to management, leadership and team dynamics, without ever altering structure and readability. Olivier Zara's latest opus is a delight!

Didier De Greef, management and agility consultant, founder of ERUDIS Consulting

An excellent book for increasing awareness and putting into practice the power of listening as a managerial responsibility.

Michel Bundock, Strategic Transformation Coach

After Decision-Making Excellence and The Chief Always Speaks Last, here's a new manifesto! Once again, Olivier Zara innovates and thinks out of the box. He shows the limits of feedback, especially negative feedback, and cleverly introduces feedforward: a soft and benevolent way of suggesting improvement in divergence mode, in the mutual interest of managers and employees.

Guillaume Peter, Senior Advisor at TIMBER Conseil, an HR consulting firm specializing in collective intelligence, and author of the book Et si ils avaient raison, plaidoyer pour l'intelligence collective en situation complexe (And if they were right, a plea for collective intelligence in complex situations).

An excellent book on operational listening: as a manager, listening helps you to learn, to recognize your employees and to make the best decisions. Contrary to popular belief, it can be learned! Read this book quickly and take notes so you can apply it to your day-to-day work.

Cyril Ogée, professional mediator, mentor and coach at AC Mentoring

The FBI uses empathic listening during high-risk hostage negotiations. Olivier Zara has transformed this technique into a terribly simple and powerful managerial tool.

Karina Boies, Organizational Development Consultant at Iceberg Management - ENAP, Montreal

An inspiring and impactful new book. To be shared widely.

Bénédicte Magnin-Feysot, Management Consultant

Congratulations on this new book! I particularly appreciated the feedforward technique.

Solange Hémery, Executive Coach

Listening means slowing down, paying attention... sometimes a difficult exercise for managers. In his latest book, Olivier Zara presents the fruit of his analysis. Put it into practice right away!

Karin Monflier, Co-founder StartUp GetUp- HR Expert