SWOT Matrix : Know Yourself First

Productivity Tool/ Technique : SWOT Matrix/ Framework

Let me begin with a short story (please note that the characters are fictitious):

Ramesh is a highly ambitious, confident and successful working professional. He is always up for any challenge thrown at him by his boss and takes it head on. He wants to climb the ladder of promotion and success as fast as he can and doesn't say NO to anything that he thinks serves his ambitions. 

But, as we all know, life is unpredictable and always holds many a tricks up its' sleeves. The market dynamics changes and Ramesh's organisation enters into a merger with another one. Two organisations with different values, different work cultures, different territories, different product lines and with many more dissimilarities (than) similarities have now become one. The new reporting structure now has Ramesh reporting to the CEO of the other organisation. The CEO, for obvious reasons, is focused on preparing a common strategy and pitch for the merged entity. He (CEO) is looking for someone to lead this project and sensing this as an opportunity to impress the new management, Ramesh offers his candidature for the position. While other shortlisted candidates take it easy on the timelines during their pitch, Ramesh overcommits and proposes a rather unreasonable timeline for the project. But being a HPI (High Potential Individual), Ramesh gets the nod by the management. Now, here's Ramesh working on the project and a couple of months into the project, he feels all stressed and burnt out (to say the least). Unable to cope up with the pressure of the task, he gives up and fails miserably. It's not about what happens/ happened next but about why this ended this way ?

The question that i want to put is not about why Ramesh chose to overcommit (because that reasons are obvious) but why others didn't chose to overcommit ? What was it that prompted them to propose/ pitch it the way they did ?

But before we jump to the answer, how about a little bit of pondering on the above and try to relate it to situations/ events from our lives. Has it happened to us/ with us/ around us ? 

   

We all have ambitions, we all are hungry for success but do we ever pause and think about how this attitude of ours could prove to be counterproductive if we don't tread the road cautiously ! How many times have we jumped the gun and taken up an assignment/ project in haste and then regretted it afterwards ? I am sure, most of us, have been in such a situation, at least once (if not more) in our life.

Now the answers

Whether it was overconfidence or miscalculation of time/ effort or some other factor, it is all because of an inability to self-assess during times of venturing into an unknown or lesser known terrain. Assuming that while Ramesh jumped the gun to grab the position, others took some time to self-assess and then provide a pitch.

Let's talk about the VUCA  (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) that we live/ work in. The environment that we operate in is dynamic and poses new challenges every day, every moment. The "survival of the fittest" is the mantra to sustain in this VUCA world and becoming the "fittest" is about being ready to face any new challenge. The "readiness" is about ensuring the following 2 things:

1. knowing what the challenge (task, assignment, project, etc.) entails and

2. knowing what i know in terms of knowledge, skill, competencies needed to address the challenge.

   

Had Ramesh not reacted and spent some time gauging the gap between what the challenge entailed and where his current abilities and capabilities stood, he wold have done a much better job of the project/ task. Likewise, we need to ask ourselves, about how willing and equipped we are to deal with challenges (big and small) posed by the VUCA world ? I would leave the "willingness" portion for a different post and just talk about the part about being equipped to deal with challenges and exigencies. Many a times, we may we willing but may not be equipped appropriately.

Whether you are from the category of willing or unwilling, i am going to share about an extremely simple tool, SWOT Matrix, that could equip us to be better prepared for any challenge in our lives (personal or professional). Let's learn more about SWOT

Background of SWOT

SWOT is an acronym which stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat

SWOT Matrix or Analysis, is a framework or technique, initially developed for businesses/ corporates, for strategising business growth and enabling the organisations to gain competitive advantage in the market. SWOT was invented in 1960s by a management consultant named Albert Humphrey during his research at Stanford University. After "corporate planning" failed to deliver for businesses, a need was felt for a tool that could help organisations in proper long-term planning. The simplicity of the tool ensured it's wide acceptance by the businesses (big and small) and gradually into the "personal" arena as well. In this post, we are going to discuss about SWOT in context of "personal" arena only. 

Need for SWOT 

Let me give you few prompts to ponder 

• Would it help to have a plan for my life to make the best of it ?
• Would having clarity about my goals and actions help me achieve more ?
• Would knowing more about myself help me be more realistic in my expectations and actions ?
• Would i prefer to be proactive in my approach wherever possible ?
• Would being competent help me be more competitive ? 
• Don't we all prefer to be better prepared for life ?

The dynamic ecosystem that we are a part of doesn't leave us with any other option but to say "yes" to one or more of the above and even one "yes" is a reason enough to start applying SWOT Framework/ Matrix in our lives. We all will be better prepared to deal with life if we have a strategy for it, a strategy that is based on facts.   

Elements of SWOT Framework 

There are 4 key elements of the framework which are (S) Strengths, (W) Weaknesses, (O) Opportunities and (T) Threats. From these Strengths and Weaknesses are 2 elements which are internal, positive and helpful whereas the other 2 elements, Opportunities and Threats are external,  negative and potentially harmful.

• S - Strengths : Strength refers to the strong points that we possess, the qualities that separates us or differentiates us favourably from our competitors. Some of these strong points could be our knowledge, education, experience, competency, skill, or anything alike. Many of these could be put in tangible terms. 
•  W- Weaknesses : Weaknesses refer to the weak links in us, things which are better in our competitors, limitations that exist in us, things we are not strong in compared to our competitors. Some of the examples are any undeveloped/ underdeveloped skill needed in the context to operate effectively and efficiently. The gaps and areas of improvement in us all refer to the Weakness element.
• O - Opportunities : This refers to the identified potential for growth and development, based on our identified goals and ambitions. This refers to any of the future plans that we identify and set for ourselves to achieve. This may be a direct outcome of our existing Strengths element. This element refers to the favourable conditions that aids our pursuit of relevant context-defined goals/ objectives. 
• T - Threats : This refers to the anticipated barriers, bottlenecks or problems that we may face in our effort to achieve our future goals. Thus may be a direct outcome of our existing Weaknesses element. This element refers to anything that may be a potential risk in our effort towards pursuing relevant context-defined goals/ objectives.

There's no control we can exert over the Opportunities and Threats elements because these are defined by market factors, which are beyond our scope of control. 

Using/ Applying SWOT

• Pick up the context for the SWOT analysis. It could our personal goal, any difficult situation or scenario, or a problem requiring effective decision-making 
• Place the SWOT template in front. We can either download a ready-made template or draw it ourselves.
• Keeping the context in mind, start filling in the Strengths quadrant and then the Weaknesses quadrant
• Now, to fill up Opportunities quadrant, reflect/ ponder on the already identified Strengths and write down what all opportunities our existing strength could provide
• Likewise, to fill up the Threats quadrant, reflect/ ponder on the already identified Weaknesses and write down what all future threats these present weaknesses of mine could create
• Once the 4 quadrants are complete, analyse them and come out with an executable Plan of Action (POA). 

Few Precautions while doing SWOT

• Keep it short and manageable by making it relevant and applicable to the context
• Be rational while filling up the quadrants
• While doing SWOT, bear in mind that it is to be done with reference to our competitor 
• Avoid making the SWOT complex by not mixing multiple contexts/ scenarios. If need be, do SWOT for each of the identified context separately
• Ensure that the focus of SWOT is appropriate to give us the specific outcomes. The focus should not be too narrow or too broad
• While filling the quadrants, wear outsider's eyes to see the Strengths and Weaknesses.
• Don't over-rely on SWOT as a comprehensive diagnostic approach. 
• Repeat the SWOT at regular intervals to ensure consistency of effort and direction 

To end the post, few important points to remember about SWOT 

• SWOT is a good, simple and effective tool and could be a good starting point but if we need a more comprehensive and holistic diagnostics, then we should not hesitate to make use of other tools as well.
• the main purpose of SWOT is enable us to arrive at a Plan of Action. So, ultimately, the effectiveness of the SWOT Analysis done by us would only be as effective as our actions. So, we need to ensure that we take appropriate actions.

To download the SWOT template, please visit this wonderful link on internet - 

https://www.smartsheet.com/14-free-swot-analysis-templates

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