article summary

Why Most Law Firm Listening Tours Fail New Leaders

When a new managing partner takes office, the first 30 to 90 days set the tone for everything that follows. Most firms get the announcement right and the listening tour wrong.
In this piece by Beth Huffman and Dave Poston of Poston Communications, ready cultures founder and CEO Alejandra Ramirez was quoted on the moment incoming leaders most often misread—the difference between a tour that builds credibility and one that quietly undermines it.

What Alejandra told them:

"The biggest risk to the incoming leader's credibility is when a listening tour is really just a celebratory tour. It should be an opportunity to ask the uncomfortable questions: Where do people feel disconnected from the firm's direction? What promises has the firm made that it hasn't delivered on? And then follow through on what they hear. The communications plan has to account for that from day one."

The full article walks through the strategic work that has to happen before, during, and after a leadership announcement: internal alignment first, then clients, then media, then the longer arc of building a leadership platform that lasts beyond the transition.