Personal SWOT Analysis

Personal SWOT Analysis
Discover new opportunities.

Manage and eliminate threats.
SWOT Analysis is a powerful technique for identifying Strengths and Weaknesses, and for examining
the Opportunities and Threats you face.
Used in a personal context, it helps you develop your career in a way that takes best advantage of
your talents, abilities and opportunities.
What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that with a little thought, it can help you uncover
opportunities that you are well placed to take advantage of. And by understanding your weaknesses,
you can manage and eliminate threats that would otherwise catch you unawares.
More than this, by looking at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to distinguish yourself
from your peers, developing the specialized talents and abilities needed to accelerate your career.
How to use the tool:
To carry out a SWOT Analysis, print out our free worksheet, and write down answers to the following
questions:
Strengths:
 What advantages (for example, skills, education or connections) do you have that others don't
have?
 What do you do better than anyone else?
 What personal resources do you have access to?
 What do other people (and your boss in particular) see as your strengths?
Consider this from your own perspective, and from the point of view of the people around you. And
don't be modest; be as objective as you can. (If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down
a list of your characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths!)
In looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to the people around you - for example, if
you're a great mathematician and the people around you are great at math, then this is not likely to be
a strength in your current role: it's more likely to be a necessity!
Weaknesses:
 What could you improve?

 What should you avoid?
 What things are the people around you likely to see as weaknesses?
Again, consider this from a personal and external basis: Do other people perceive weaknesses that
you do not see? Do co-workers consistently out-perform you in key areas? It is best to be realistic
now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.
Opportunities:
 Where are the good opportunities facing you?

 What are the interesting trends you are aware of?
Useful opportunities can come from such things as:
 Changes in technology, markets and your company, on both a broad and narrow scale.
 Changes in government policy related to your field.
 Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and suchlike.
 Local Events.
A useful approach to looking at opportunities is also to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether
these open up any opportunities.
Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by
eliminating them.
Threats:
 What obstacles do you face?

 What are the people around you doing?
 Is your job (or the demand for the things you do) changing?
 Is changing technology threatening your position?
 Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten you?
Just as your strengths can often bring opportunities, your weaknesses can often bring threats. Check
the weaknesses you've listed, and make sure that you've identified any threats that could come from
them.
Take Action
Finally, update your personal planning system to reflect your SWOT Analysis. Where you've identified
possible opportunities, set goals to explore them, with a view to capitalizing on them. Where you've
identified possible threats, set goals to investigate them, with a view to eliminating, managing or
minimizing them.
Key points:
A SWOT matrix is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities
and threats you face. This helps you to focus on your strengths, minimize weaknesses, and take the
greatest possible advantage of opportunities available.
Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be
done, and in putting problems into perspective.

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Personal SWOT Analysis

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Personal SWOT Analysis

Discover new opportunities.

How to use the tool:

 What could you improve?

 Where are the good opportunities facing you?

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

 What obstacles do you face?

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