PERSONAL SWOT WORKBOOKPERS0NAL

SWOT

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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

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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

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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!

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ST

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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

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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.

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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

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SMy THREATS are...

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WHAT NEXT? YOUR SWOT PE

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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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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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Learn more about kickstarting your business idea. Find the program that’s right for you at

www.theleagueofinnovators.com

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