PERSONAL SWOT WORKBOOK PERS0NAL SWOT
Transcript of PERSONAL SWOT WORKBOOK PERS0NAL SWOT
PERSONAL SWOT WORKBOOKPERS0NAL
SWOT
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RK
BO
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Whether in business, school or in life
understanding yourself and your innate
abilities can be the most powerful key
to success and your happiness. How
can you be the boss of all your decisions
and your life? We believe the Personal
SWOT is a tool that can help you hone
in on your own skills and give you the
understanding of yourself that you
need to grow into the future. This is a
tool for everyone and for all paths!
KNOWING YOURSELF
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A TOOL FOR SELF DISCOVERYWH
AT IS
SWO
T?
The SWOT analysis was originally developed in the 1970s to support
the development of effective analysis and planning to build corporate
strategy for fortune 500 companies. Businesses needed a way to
understand what their current situation was in order to properly
develop a strategy that worked towards meeting specific objectives
and goals. The SWOT has been a fundamental part of corporate
planning ever since.
The SWOT is a very simple, yet very powerful tool to assess internal
strengths and weaknesses, while examining external opportunities
and threats. How can we know where we are going if we
don’t know our own abilities and limitations?
Roadmaps work for companies and individuals alike. But it’s really
important to understand who we are, what we are good at, and
what we need to work on or avoid before we start building one for
ourselves. This is where the Personal SWOT comes in handy.
But how exactly can a SWOT be used in the context of a
person? Well, a personal SWOT is a tool that you can use to assess
your current abilities and maximize your personal potential. This
method can be applied to anyone and anything. A personal SWOT
analysis takes a look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats and presents a ‘full’ picture of the current reality or
situation you may find yourself in.
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Understanding your opportunities and threats will help you to utilize your
strengths, and minimize your weaknesses to activate opportunities and
navigate threats. A personal SWOT takes you from A to B with your goals
and keeps you ready and aware.
Ensuring that you get the most out of completing your own personal
SWOT analysis this workbook requires following some simple but
important rules:
→ Be rigorous and dive deep
→ Take a view from all perspectives
→ Be realistic
→ Be specific
→ Prioritize
→ Make sure you have a specific goal in mind
→ MOST IMPORTANTLY BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
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IDENTIFY YOUR GOAL HERE
Before you do your PersonalSWOT analysis, choose a specific
goal that you want to acheive.Having a goal in mind creates
context for your SWOT analysisand allows you to assess your
SWOT with a purpose.
YOUR
GOA
LS
PRO TIP: Pick something big or
small , just something you want to
genuinely want to accomplish and
that is achievable and realistic.
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GO
AL
S
Is there anything you arecurrently working towards?
Think of a time frame that youwant to complete your goal within.Make sure the time frame is built
into the statement above.
Be specific. Could you explain yourgoal to someone for the first time
within 1 or 2 sentences?
If you get stuck, start with something small.
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LETS START WITH STRENGTHS
What exactly is a personal strength? A strength is a character
trait, a skill or a talent that you posses. It’s an internal attribute that
sets you apart - something that you are naturally great at doing.
Understanding your strengths is a really effective way of being more
productive in anything you do. An awareness of what you’re great at
will give you the ability to consciously do it more often in pursuit of
any goal.
You may be wondering, how do I even start?
Start by asking yourself a few questions:
→ What has been your greatest success in life?
→ What were the internal factors that made you successful?
→ Are there academic areas that you excel at in school?
→ What are some things that you do that make you feel strong or
energized?
Feeling excited or powerful is often an indicator that we are doing
something that we are good at.
Now take 10 minutes to answer these questions and starting to
work through your strengths. Remember there are no right or wrong
answers!
STRE
NGTH
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ST
RE
NG
TH
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My STRENGTHS are....
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DRILLING DOWNNext, let’s tackle our weaknesses. Thinking about what we aren’t
good at, isn’t always fun. In fact, it can even be painful. But knowing
your weaknesses is more important than you might think. It can
seriously improve your ability to make a realistic plan for you to reach
your goal. Weaknesses are internal attributes or barriers to achieve your
desired goal or goals. For example, being disorganized is often perceived
to be a weakness.
Understanding our weaknesses is one of the most difficult tasks
because it requires a real, honest critique of our own abilities .
Weaknesses aren’t forever, but they can often be blind-spots for us.
They’re usually areas we don’t like and therefore tend to avoid working
on. Using a personal SWOT allows us to shed light on the areas that
require the most work.
Ask some questions:
→ What is the biggest failure that you’ve ever experienced?
→ Why did you fail?
→ What is or was your least favorite class in school?
→ Which part do you dislike the most?
→ What do others criticize me for?
→ What activities drain my energy?
→ Which tasks do I tend to procrastinate? We avoid things we don’t like
because we have to use skills we aren’t great at. Procrastination is one
the biggest indicators of weakness.
We avoid things and situations for a reason. Drill down into those areas
and you will discover your weaknesses. Talk to people who know you
like friends, parents, or even teachers in order to get some feedback
that you can put to work.
WEAK
NESS
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WE
AK
NE
SS
ES
My WEAKNESSES are...
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UNDERSTANDING YOUR ENVIRONMENTThe next two quadrants of the SWOT analysis represent the external
factors, often the factors we can not control. These factors are always
present around us and often have a positive or negative impact on our
ability to execute or meet a goal.
What are opportunities? Opportunities are external conditions
that could provide a competitive advantage if leveraged properly. For
example, if you want that internship at Microsoft and you know
someone that works at Microsoft, that could be considered an
opportunity. Opportunities, as you might guess, are factors that
can contribute to your growing success. These factors are typically
outside of your control, which is why they are considered external
factors.
But how can we identify them? Remember that goal that we
asked you to set at the beginning of workbook? You have to consider
the focus or the goal of your personal swot in order to properly
identify your opportunities. Hot tip: opportunities will change
according to your final goal.
Ask some questions:
→ Who do you know (teachers, family members, or friends) that could
allow you to reach your goal?
→ Is there a trend that could impact your goal positively?
→ What activities are available to you in your learning?
Take some time to really think through the greater set of opportunities
that exist for you. Consider everything from your network, to the
region you live in, technology, trends, politics, everything and anything
that might factor into achieving your goal.
OPPO
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ITIES
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OP
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ITIE
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My OPPORTUNITIES are...
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OBSTACLES IN THE ROAD
Now that you have your goal and opportunities, it’s time to consider
the things that can prevent you from achieving that goal.
Let’s start by defining what a threat is? Threats are external
factors that could damage or ‘threaten’ your ability to attain goals
or objective. If you know that the application process for that
Microsoft internship is super competitive, that can be considered a
serious threat to your end goal of attaining a Microsoft internship.
Identifying our threats can be challenging. Don’t get frustrated
if this doesn’t come easily - often times, our threats are not the
most obvious to us. If you’re having a tough time getting specific,
look back at the strengths and weaknesses, but this time, use it
to list strengths and weaknesses of a competitor or someone or
something that is in between you and your goal. You won’t know
as much about your competitor’s capabilities as you know about
your own, but you probably know enough to flag areas of strength
and weakness. Your competitor’s strengths are potential threats
to your business or goal, and their weaknesses present potential
opportunities.
Take some time to really think through the greater set of threats
that exist for you. Like opportunities, consider everything from your
network, to your the region you live in, technology, trends, politics,
everything and anything that feels relevant to you.
THRE
ATS
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TH
RE
AT
SMy THREATS are...
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WHAT NEXT? YOUR SWOT PE
RSON
AL S
WOT
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES Knowledge is power. Knowing
your strengths and weaknesses equips you to be more effective in 3
distinct ways:
→ It enables you to disengage in activities where you can’t make
much impact and are not optimizing your skills
→ It provides an opportunity for others—people with the very
strengths you’re missing— to contribute. This strengthens YOU, your
community and your network.
→ It keeps you from frustrating yourself and others. Being aware of
your weakness means you can put more effort into the tasks you may
struggle with, ask for help and to be mindful.
You won’t always be able to avoid acting in your areas of weakness
and you can’t always capitalize on everyones‘ strengths. But knowing
your weaknesses and your strengths means you can build better a
path for yourself, a better team in a business and surround yourself
with skilled people who excel in the areas you struggle.
OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS Opportunities exist in tandem with
threats. We don’t have one without the other. Threats are barriers
directly related to the opportunities and goals we set. They are the
obstacles that inhibit us and make our goals seem more difficult to
achieve.
Shedding light on your threats and understanding their relationship
to your goals and opportunities prepares you to tackle these threats
if they begin to affect your ability to meet your goal. Remember,
knowledge is power, and knowing threats means you can anticipate
and overcome them.
The purpose of the personal SWOT analysis is to identify actions you
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PE
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SW
OT
can take to best meet the requirements of the job or goal you are
seeking. If you are looking for a job, comparing your strengths and
weaknesses to the job requirements will identify gaps and help you
prepare to be the best candidate for the position. If you are starting a
business, analyzing your threats and opportunities can give you an
early indication on whether or not your business idea is really worth
exploring.
Now that you have had a little bit of experience putting a SWOTtogether
from the previous exercises, let‘s set a new goal, and build a brand new
PERSONAL SWOT for yourself.
REMEMBER THE RULES:
→ Be rigorous→ View from all perspectives→ Be realistic→ Be specific→ Prioritize→ Set Goals→ Most importantly Be HONEST with YOURSELF
Strengths - what will you do to leverage your strengths? tips - take on a new role, offer to help a friend with a projectWeaknesses - what will you do to improve your habits? tips - get an accountability buddy, take a course to build a specific skillOpportunities - how will you make the most of your opportunities?tips - ask someone who you’ve been meaning to talk to for a while for coffeeThreats - how can you better understand and manage your threats tominimize its impact? research it and decide whether you can acceptor can control it
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WeaknessesStrengths
Opportunities Threats
YOUR
SWO
T• Don’t be modest.
• Talents you have (ie sports, music)
• Things you love (ie hobbies,
activities)
• What are you good at?
• What do others see as your
strengths?
• Think financial, geographic,
time, political, environmental,
competitive etc
• What external factors could get
in the way of your goal?
• What obstacles do you face that
you can control?
• Skills you need to develop?
(ie writing)
• Do you lack experience that you
need/want for your career goals?
• What are your unproductive
habits?
• What do others see as your
weaknesses? Why?
• What are trends you see in the
world?
• What activities/opportunities are
available to you in your learning
and development?
• Is there a problem or unfilled
need you want to solve?
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WeaknessesStrengths
Opportunities Threats
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NO
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NO
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Learn more about kickstarting your business idea. Find the program that’s right for you at
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