Campus To Career: 6c: Using the SWOT analysis

Once you create your S-W-O-T what next? How do you stitch it all together? How do you read your SWOT analysis? How do you make plans based on this learning?

?By the time you come to this step, you will have put together your strengths, your weak areas, the opportunities you see, and the threats you need to take care of.

All of that finding place on the same sheet of paper is the next step – so that it becomes a single sheet that can guide you.

How do you use it?

There are a few ways of using it – but basically, all of them come down to understanding your current situation in a nutshell through this SWOT document.

1.??? Visual inspection:

Just see what this single sheet of paper tells you. Do you have more strengths compared to weaknesses? Or is it the other way around? Do you see more opportunities ahead compared to threats? Or, is it the reverse?

Just a glance at the sheet tells you what your situation is and more importantly, what you must do about it.

?

2.??? Simple Scoring :

This is a lot more “involved” way of using the SWOT. The method by itself is pretty simple.

For every strength, give yourself 1 point. For every weakness, give yourself a negative 1. Now, add all the points together to see your “net” score. Are you net positive? Or negative?

Similarly, for every opportunity, give yourself 1 point. For every threat listed, give yourself a negative point. Add up all the opportunities and threats. Are you net positive on opportunities?

Doing this gives you a little more understanding of your situation by “quantifying” it.

?3.??? Detailed scoring:

This can be very helpful to analyze your situation if you are willing to invest time and effort. Again, the methodology is pretty simple.

First, look at your strengths. Classify the strengths into “Super” and “Normal”. Just two classifications are good enough for most people. "Super" is something where you consider yourself to be an expert. Where you may be comparatively much better than a lot of other people. For example, suppose you are already an established content writer, you can call your writing skills a “very good” strength. "Normal" is something where you are good – but not necessarily better compared to others.

Give yourself 2 points for each of the “Super” strengths. Give yourself 1 point for each of the “normal" strengths.

Similarly, if you think your weakness is normal, give yourself a negative 1. If you think your weakness is very pronounced or “super”, give yourself -2

Now, add up all the strengths & and weaknesses points.

All we have done now is to give “weightage” to your strengths and weaknesses instead of treating all of them similarly.

Extend the same logic to opportunities and threats.

If you think it is a decent opportunity, 1 point. If you think it is a great opportunity, 2 points. Similarly, if you think the threat is average, negative 1; if you think the threat is a big one, negative 2.

Now, sum up the opportunities and threats to see what your net score is.

The weightage you give shows you how great the situation is or how grave the problem is – depending on the net scores you see.

Tracking your SWOT over a period of time: Learning about yourself

The SWOT sheet is not a one-time document. It is a dynamic document – which you need to periodically go over and make modifications.

What you consider as strength may not be a strength in a different circumstance. Your opportunities or threats may change as time goes by.

So, treat this as a document that must be regularly revised.

Now, don’t destroy the old SWOT documents. Make a copy of the SWOT and make modifications to that.

Why?

Because the SWOT analysis over a period of time can provide fascinating insights about yourself to you – which you might miss otherwise.

So, keep a periodic review. Say every 6 months. Twice a year. Go back to the document. Make a copy of the old one and label it with the current date and add/ delete as you see fit. Every year, look at the past documents and see whether your understanding of how you have been reading your strengths and weaknesses and similarly the opportunities and threats has been good. How well you are able to understand yourself. How badly you missed assessing the opportunities or the threats.

That in itself, can be a great learning!

In the next newsletter, let us see how you can learn a lot more about yourselves by simply thinking of your past - in terms of what you liked and disliked; what you loved vs hated; what you wanted to work on vs avoided.

I call it as "Incidents Mind Mapping" method. It is simple. And, very very effective.

See you next week!

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If you need any clarification, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me / my team at Career Growth Mastery Blueprint team at [email protected]

You can also register on my website for the Free Masterclass that I conduct on the 4th February 2024, Time: 11.00 am to 1.00 pm: https://academy.visvanathansambasivam.com/l/0e5382ce53

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