Setting SMART vs. STAR Goals: Which Framework Is Right for Your Firm?

When to Consider SMART Goals:

• Your firm has a multi-year strategic plan requiring annual milestones
• You’re implementing firm-wide initiatives that need cross-departmental alignment
• You’re building a performance and advancement roadmap for direct report
• Data is available to support measurable outcomes

The Case for STAR Goals

Where SMART goals excel at structure and measurement, STAR goals — which are Specific, Timely, Action-Oriented and Realistic — prioritize momentum and adaptability. They emphasize what needs to happen to move the needle instead of becoming bogged down in setting or meeting a specific metric. This leaves room for goals that require more flexibility — for example, pursuits that focus on culture, leadership presence or relationship building.

STAR goals — which are Specific, Timely, Action-Oriented and Realistic — prioritize momentum and adaptability.

Michelle Silverthorn, JD, founder and chief executive officer of Inclusion Nation, a consultancy focused on workplace culture, employee engagement and leadership development, sees particular value in STAR for the areas of law firm growth that resist quantification and focus primarily on qualitative growth.

“When you incorporate STAR goals, it allows for more creativity, more flexibility,” Silverthorn says. “Those aren’t often things that lawyers love, but they are the things that will help them become better lawyers, better advocates and better teammates in the future.”

When to Consider STAR goals:

• Your firm wants to focus on leadership development, mentoring or culture-building
• A team needs to respond quickly to regulatory changes, market adjustments or organizational restructuring
• Individual behavioral growth is the priority over firm-level metrics

Before You Choose a Framework: Start With a SWOT

Choosing between SMART and STAR goals before understanding the underlying needs of your firm can be hasty. That’s why Hissong recommends conducting a SWOT analysis — an assessment of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats — as an essential first step before diving into goal setting.

Conducting a SWOT analysis forces an honest audit of the firm’s capabilities, bottlenecks and vulnerabilities: Where are you strong? Where are the gaps? What opportunities are you positioned to act on, and what external pressures could derail your progress?

For law firm leaders, that audit often surfaces blind spots that goal setting alone wouldn’t have identified. For example, a leader who completes a personal SWOT and discovers a weakness in talent development now has a concrete foundation for a goal — and a clearer sense of whether that goal needs the measurable structure of SMART or the behavioral flexibility of STAR.

The Question Both Frameworks Should Answer

Beyond the mechanics of each approach, Silverthorn argues that the most important ingredient in any goal setting process is clarity of purpose — and that lawyers, in particular, tend to skip it.

Instead of encouraging lawyers to think about where they’ll be in a year, or two or three, she prefers to narrow down the scope while zeroing in on the reason. “What do you want to achieve by the end of this week, and why? Where do you want to be by the end of this month, and why?” Silverthorn says. “The more you can articulate why you want to achieve something — not just what you have to achieve — the more everything else falls into place.”

Which Framework Fits Your Firm?

For strategic, long-range goals with measurable outcomes, such as technology adoption, operational benchmarks or financial performance, SMART goals provide the scaffolding those goals require. For goals centered on leadership development, team culture, mentoring and relationship-building, the flexibility and action-driven achievements of STAR goals are better suited to the work.

For strategic, long-range goals with measurable outcomes, such as technology adoption, operational benchmarks or financial performance, SMART goals provide the scaffolding those goals require.

The two frameworks can also coexist. A firm may decide to apply SMART goals to its annual strategic priorities while using STAR goals for individual and team-based growth that’s harder to quantify.

“Goals work when they create direction and clarity, and they don’t feel like another box to check,” Silverthorn says. Not only will they help you grow as an attorney and professional, but also they’ll help your organization become a stronger and more successful firm.