I was first introduced to SWOT analysis during my brief period working for Harte-Hanks, and since then I have used it many, many times. You have no doubt come across SWOT analysis during your professional or academic career, if not, then not to worry. In a nutshell SWOT analysis is used to reveal a businesses Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunity and Threats facing that business.
Photo by: Jacob Botter
In this post I go through how to use SWOT as a personal analysis tool to discover where you are now and where you should be headed. I’ve included a simple worksheet which you can download and print off.
Note: SWOT analysis is a powerful technique, and it works best if you take time to work through each step. I would personally recommend that you read through this post then put aside about an hour to do the worksheet.
Benefits
The four concepts behind SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threats) are quite clear, however their benefits may not be so.
Utilizing your strength in your personal and professional life will not only mean you will enjoy what you do (who doesn’t like doing things they are good at?), but will also mean that you will progress further, faster.
Understanding your weaknesses is equally as important, if not more so, because our weakness is what we tend to focus on more often. By knowing what your weaknesses are you are able to improve, avoid or delegate those tasks.
Opportunity refer to things that you can utilize and take advantage off, where as threats are things that may slow you in your path towards success.
Putting the pieces together
Strengths: This is the part you should spend the most time on. Some questions that you may want to ask yourself:
- What makes you unique?
- What is your selling point?
- What skills/traits/characteristics do others point out in you?
- What are some of things that you’re really proud of?
- What do other consider to be your strengths?
Additionally a book such as strengths finder 2.0 might be a useful resource.
Weaknesses: Consider what some of your personal weaknesses are. You may find some of these questions of help:
- What are some areas where you could improve?
- What are some of the areas other perceive as your weak point?
- Are there any areas other consistently outperform you in?
- What are some things you tend to avoid?
- What are some things you do only out of necessity?
Opportunities: These are normally external elements that may influence your success. Consider your strengths and see what opportunities are tied in with them.
- What would you love to do, that you’re also good at?
- What opportunities are available to you?
- What weaknesses are holding you back? What could you do, if these weaknesses weren’t holding you back?
- What trends are you aware of? What are some of the opportunities that arise as a result of these?
Threats: These are external factors that may hinder your success. A threat analysis will often put the problem in new perspective, and shine a light on what needs to be done.
- What are some of the things that may get in your way in achieving success?
- Are any of your weaknesses a threat to you?
- What setbacks could you face?
- What have others done or are doing in your position/situation?
- What obstacles are you facing?
The other person
A useful step at this point is to get a close friend or colleague (or even your boss) to carry out a SWOT analysis on you. This will not only give you an external and (hopefully) unbiased perspective but also allows you to compare your own findings with those of your friend or colleague.
The next step
Through using the personal SWOT analysis you will be able to get an insight into yourself. You will gain a fresh perspective on where you are now and where should be headed.
SWOT offers up a chance to analyze your personal strengths and weaknesses and give you the possibility to consider the opportunities and threats that arise as a result. With this information to hand you could focus more on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, take advantage of the opportunities and prepare in advance for the threats that you may face.
Finally, although SWOT analysis can be a excellent self-reflection technique, it is only half the picture. You now understand yourself better, the next step is to identify and define your goals. I will be looking at this in more detail in the coming weeks.
How did you get on? Do you have any have any ideas that may build upon this technique? Are there other techniques you have you used to do similar things?
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