Have You Done Your End of the Year SWOT?

One of my coaching clients asked at a recent session for a tool to assess her learning and growth from 2009 and set new goals for 2010. While we both are fans of Jinny Ditzler's Your Best Year Yet!: Ten Questions for Making the Next Twelve Months Your Most Successful Ever, I wanted to offer her something that enabled her to more strategically align her business and personal goals with her core values and leadership strengths.

I suggested she conduct a Personal SWOT Analysis. Traditionally, a SWOT analysis allows businesses to identify specifically the conditions of the marketplace from which they can set short-term goals and develop long-term plans. However, the same kind of thinking can be employed by individuals looking to set their own strategic professional and personal goals. And the end of a calendar year is the perfect time to look at one's life via the following 4 lenses:

Strengths- In what areas of your work and life do you both excel AND feel strong?

Weaknesses- In what areas are you NOT at the top of your game or do you feel depleted?

Opportunities- In what areas are you most likely to succeed based on your individual strengths and values, resources, and enthusiasms?

Threats- What are real and self-imposed, likely and potentially unforeseen individual, social, economic, or environmental obstacles to short and long-term success?

Based on what came up in each of the four areas:
• Where is it most important for you to focus your attention over the next year so that you are playing to your strengths 70-80% of your time and your weaknesses no more than 20-30%?

• Which 2-3 strengths and 1-2 weaknesses will be most important for you to grow based on what you’ve discovered about opportunities and threats?

• How can your 2010 goals reflect your SWOT analysis?