In the business world, SWOT analysis is an essential tool for strategic planning, helping organizations understand their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. But did you know that the same tool can be equally effective in the context of personal development?
SWOT analysis as a measure of success
The new year is a time for performance evaluations in many large corporations and smaller companies alike. It’s a time to review the previous year, looking for successes and less successful actions, and to remember one’s own actions from a year ago… Some of you may have trouble recalling last Wednesday at work. There’s a solution for that, but more on that later.
I’ve worked with multi-tab evaluation sheets in Excel (with performance formulas) as well as simple two-page Word sheets, more descriptive ones. And in both cases, when it comes time for self-assessment and filling out the form, there comes reflection – “What have I done over the past year?” – and also stress, uncertainty, unwarranted worries, and other noise that hinder honest self-assessment.
The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. Self-assessment is essential for personal and professional development, and if you do it more often than once a year, it becomes a great tool for continuous improvement… of yourself, your actions, and may subtly and positively influence the people you work with and have in your environment.
My pro-tip – set a reminder in your calendar every 2 or 3 weeks and write down your successes and less successful actions for the next year in a self-assessment form or any other format (I don’t use the word “failure” – it’s from NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and then writing the self-assessment will take you 30, maybe 60 minutes, because otherwise you’ll be racking your brain for 3, 4 hours or longer (MUDA, we’re efficient, we don’t like MUDA).
Why is self-assessment important?
It allows you to look at yourself from the perspective of achievements or missed opportunities, from the perspective of acquired knowledge and new skills or competency gaps you have.
Self-assessment shows both sides of the coin, what succeeded and what didn’t, for me it’s also a time to work hard on my EGO… because less successful actions or personal imperfections – or rather open admission to them – are not well received by the EGO.
The pro-tip also works well for self-improvement.
Personal SWOT? Why not!?
SWOT analysis as a part of self-assessment – step by step
A lot depends on the methods used in your company, and I recommend starting with a simple, self-directed SWOT method, which is very helpful for self-assessment, I’m not talking about achieving KPIs or other “hard” tasks throughout the year.
It’s about taking a sincere look at yourself and making a sincere assessment (just without butchering yourself, torturing yourself, and cutting off your wings – this article is meant to give you wings).
SWOT Analysis starts with “S” – Strengths
When evaluating strengths, be as objective as possible. Positive thinking and awareness of your strengths will “build” you up and add a lot of confidence.
Remember to maintain balance and not to get too high with your self-image – control your EGO. Here are a few examples:
- I meet task deadlines.
- Stress – there’s stress in war – I can control my emotions.
- What skills make me an effective specialist, engineer, manager, director, CEO?
- How does my experience fill the knowledge/skill gap in the company?
- What are my achievements? – successful potential audit, de-escalation with a client, being selected to lead a new project, reducing non-conformities by 75%, etc.
Weaknesses
This may not be easy… and that’s okay! Be honest with yourself, brutally honest. You’ll humble yourself and see your imperfections. Look at yourself from two perspectives – your own and from the perspective of third parties. Remember to maintain balance, don’t beat yourself up, don’t depress yourself, and don’t torture yourself, because now you know the areas where you can improve. Here are a few examples:
- I’m not organized.
- I click on my laptop during meetings, missing 90% of the meeting content.
- I procrastinate and avoid difficult tasks.
- My foreign language proficiency is at A2 level, and I stutter during teleconferences.
Opportunities
The previous two points came from your internal perspective; now it’s time to look outside. Opportunities are all around you. Your skills, industry, colleagues and actions create opportunities.
- How can technology help me?
- How can I translate my experience into my own business?
- What habits will help me better organize my time?
- What education will help me increase my earnings by 200, 300, 400% (courses, training, MBA, Ph.D.)?
- Complete career change, hmm?
Threats
This is also an external aspect that will show you what you need to watch out for and what will slow you down or prevent you from achieving your goals. Here you may see that you are a threat to yourself because you don’t want to learn a language. Why? Because instead of developing yourself, you choose to watch TV, because your EGO fears how others will perceive you and therefore you prefer to do nothing. Here are a few examples:
- Skill that I don’t have, but will be required in my position.
- How is my industry changing and am I keeping up with the changes?
- Personal weaknesses and their negative impact on my future.
- Job reductions in the company I work for.
- How can weaknesses turn into threats?
SWOT analysis done, but what’s next?
There was stress. The ego was touched multiple times. Pens and nails were bitten, and in the end, there is an effect. Self-assessment… sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, initially not entirely sincere. This is the stage where you need to write down what you want to do next. It’s time for PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act).
A place for action plans. It’s time to set goals for yourself. Be clever and make them S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). What do you want to improve, how and when, and above all, why.
Having a plan for yourself (maybe even for the whole team or department) in the context of successes and less successful actions, the conversation with your superior won’t be stressful. On the contrary. Instead of worries, lack of self-confidence, and dodging, the superior will see that you see, understand, and want to improve much more.
Personal SWOT can also help you make decisions and take actions that have been dormant within you. You can go to university, you can get promoted, you can change jobs, you can change industries, you can start your own business, you can become a freelancer.
As you can see, there are many possibilities. Turn them into an action plan. Set your goals for the next month, quarter, year, 3 years, and get to work.
Your actions matter
Pro-tip #2 – Act! Start with small steps towards your goals.
Evaluate yourself not only once a year. Do it regularly. Constantly and seemingly imperceptibly, and you’ll avoid correcting yourself, your work, and your habits in a large quantity and in one, mostly condensed time (MURA, MURI). Alternate between PDCA – SDCA – PDCA – SDCA. You already know the first acronym. Let’s decipher the second – Standarize-Do-Check-Act, because every executed plan becomes a standard and at the same time a starting point for the next plan.
You and your team will benefit from this, and perhaps you will even inspire someone to regularly self-assess and improve.
That’s what I wish for you.
