everybody welcome back this is food for thought
thoughts fit for you this is your host neogentrics
last time we covered what a basic SWOT analysis
is and how businesses use it and its general
purposes and today i'm going to go ahead and
talk about the personal SWOT analysis which is
essentially similar to the same thing but now
we're talking about on a personal level on how
you can use it so Again, like I mentioned before,
SWOT analysis is the examination of your situation
by looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats. It has been used by businessmen
for years as a strategic planning tool because
it helps you to give an all -around view of your
organization as a whole. However, SWOT analysis
are equally useful on a personal level as a way
to identify areas for development and as part
of career discussions. It's simple format, easy
to apply structure, means that it can be used
very easily without support. In summary, Swan
Mouses is a way of looking at your situation
by identifying, one, your strengths or those
areas where you have an advantage over others
or some unique resource that you can exploit.
Your weaknesses, an area where you may be weaker
than others or may find that others are better
than you. Opportunities. Possibilities that you
can take advantage of to help you achieve your
goals and ambitions. And threats. Things that
may prevent you from making a profit or achieving
your goals. Okay? That's essentially the basics
of a SWOT analysis. Okay? Next, we'll talk about
the personal SWOT analysis. And then after that,
we'll cover the SWOT process. So, a personal
SWOT analysis. A personal SWOT analysis is very
similar to one for business, except that you
focus on yourself and your goals. A personal
SWOT analysis, however, may be more useful if
you focus on a specific goal or problem that
you want to address. This is because we all have
a number of very diverse goals. The skills and
attributes that may help us towards one's goal
may be... irrelevant or even a weakness in other
contexts a threat in one context could be unimportant
in another it just depends on how you look at
it okay as such you can use it therefore in a
wide variety of different circumstances based
off of what you're using it so to begin with
the SWOT process number one I want you to identify
the goal that you want to achieve If you can't
do this, there's no point in moving forward any
further. It's important to be as specific as
possible and be clear about the timing, that
is, when you wish to achieve your goal and also
how much or how you will know when you have achieved
it, such as your success criteria, if you will.
If you have not identified any goals, you should
probably do so as soon as possible. Now, if you
need help with that, I have a podcast covering
setting personal goals. If I haven't already
made one, please look forward to it coming out
as soon as possible to help you all out with
moving forward from this point forward. Now,
thinking specifically about that goal, number
two would be identifying the personal strengths
that will help you to achieve it. And the weaknesses
that could also prevent you from doing it. Now,
It's often helpful to consider knowledge, skills,
experience, resources, and support that you have
available. If you list these headings separately,
you will remember to consider all of these. So
it's important to write down what you're trying
to do on paper so you can have a look at what
you're doing rather than trying to keep it in
your head. These areas are generally internal.
That is, they relate to you on a personal note
and the resources and skills that are available
to you as well. There are, therefore, things
that are generally under your control and then
things that are not. A key fact to note is that
kick -starting your self -analysis requires you
to do a few things in order to get started. However,
if you find this process difficult, you may want
to take an interpersonal self -assessment skill
test in order to give you an idea of your strengths
and weaknesses. This may be useful as a starting
point for further thinking, but it will not aid
you in the entire process. It will revolve around
you still having to do some kind of work. Now,
third, I need you to identify any personal opportunities
that can enable you to achieve the goal and also
that will be able to take advantage of when you
have achieved the goal that you're attempting
to reach. Opportunities are generally external
things to keep in mind. OK, relating to the environment
and those around you rather than yourself. They
include things such as, oh, I don't know, promotions
and financial incentives or events that are likely
to happen at work or outside, you know, such
as going to going on maternity leave, sabbatical,
things of that nature, something that you would
be considered new. OK, and identifying those
opportunities, it opens up a result of achieving
your goal, considerable short and long term benefits
as well. It's just something to keep in mind.
Next, identify any threats. These are external
things and events that are worrying you or that
might happen or prevent you from achieving your
goal either way or taking advantage of the benefits.
You don't want to have threats, but if you have
some, they're actually really useful in moving
forward as they give you something to work with
or around. to improve your chances. Then last
but not least, review and prioritize. With this
being said, as always with development activities,
you need strategic thinking. It's a good idea
to review your analysis and ask yourself the
two following questions. I'm sorry, three questions.
There are three questions. Is this recognizably
me after... you've achieved your goal or you're
about to achieve your goal. Next, is there anything
that I may have forgotten? Because you always
want to ask yourself that. And then last but
not least, which areas are most important in
each of the four categories in this analysis
for me to focus on? Try to highlight at least
one or two. Things that from each of... strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that you
think would be most important in achieving or
preventing you from achieving your goal, and
then make those areas your main priorities for
action. Alright? Alright, so, in closing, Using
a personal SWOT analysis. It's a very useful
tool in working out what you want to get from
mentoring or anything else. It is also, however,
much more widely applicable and you can use it
to help you analyze any personal development
or learning situation. Going through this process
for particular goals and or problems that you
face enables you to identify which areas are
really bothering you and where you need to focus
your attention. You can use this process for
each and every goal, but it may be more helpful
to use it only when you find a problem particularly
challenging. It is effectively a way of ordering
your thinking and helping you to see the problem
in a slightly different way. So let me take this
into a thought for you guys. A personal SWOT
analysis can be done on your own. First off.
You don't really need anyone's help, though.
You can always do so. However, it is worth bearing
in mind that a business SWOT analysis is stronger
if it draws on evidence from outside the organization,
such as independent market research or views
from customers. But in that way, in the same
way, a personal SWOT analysis is likely to be
more powerful if you draw on the views of others,
particularly friends and or relatives, and then
filter through the information they give you
instead of just taking it all by heart. If, for
example, you're part of a learning group at work
or at college or university, you can agree to
go through the process for each other in turn.
You can even gather evidence from each other's
colleagues to support the analysis just so you
have claim to what you're trying to do. If you're
doing this by yourself, you may want to ask friends
or colleagues their views on your strengths and
weaknesses or ask them to comment on your first
draft analysis. give some suggestions remember
both good and bad criticism is helpful while
bad criticism is stuff that you typically do
not wish to hear and good criticism is usually
around the same area but it's usually something
to help you improve they both generally allow
you to see where you're strong and weak at if
not bluntly in some cases be aware that doing
this may cost you to be up front with some of
your peers And you may have to open yourself
up a little bit to receive this information.
Otherwise, being restrictive into what you want
to hear and only hearing that can prevent you
from utilizing this to its fullest and allowing
yourself to grow and improve. So, any final thoughts
on the SWOT analysis for personal development?
Well, like any personal development process,
the SWOT analysis is not something that you want
to do every single day. I can tell you from experience.
It's a draining, draining thing to do. Don't
do it. But if you are finding a particular problem
is very intractable or inaccessible, or that
you're really struggling to know where to start
with a goal, it may be a useful way of ordering
your thinking and giving you a different perspective
on the problem that you're trying to solve. Okay?
Keep this in mind. The SWOT analysis, while simple
and effective, It's only useful if you truly
wish to utilize it to its fullest and you're
really willing to receive the information that
you're getting, whether from you, someone else,
your boss, your friend, your uncle, or your girlfriend
or your spouse. It doesn't matter who. Because
typically the information coming in is not always
going to be positive. Expect negative feedback,
but take it with a grain of salt. Write everything
down. Don't write down the person who said it.
Write down everything, good and bad. Then take
it back and look at it and analyze everything.
When you take away the person who said what,
it makes it a lot easier to analyze where the
problems are. But you have to be honest with
yourself. You need to know this is where I'm
faulty at. This is where I'm weak at. This is
what I don't know. And this is what I need to
improve. Whether it be relationship -wise, your
personality, how you treat people, it doesn't
matter. If you're looking for help with those,
I think I covered them in a podcast previously.
So feel free to go back through my previous podcast
for personal development. I'll be covering more
topics in the future, but, and as well as business
skills. However, I want to make sure I make this
note clear. All right. I want to thank you guys
for listening. This has been food for thought
thoughts. If it were you, this is your host Neo
Gentrix signing out on personal SWOT analysis
for personal skills. Tune in next time. We'll
be talking about dealing with failure. Enjoy
the rest of your day.