Jump to section
What’s a personal SWOT analysis?
How to conduct a personal SWOT analysis
23 personal SWOT analysis examples
How it works
Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.
Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.
We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.
Products
Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.
Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.
Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.
Solutions
Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.
Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.
Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.
What is coaching?
Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.
Types of Coaching
Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.
Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.
Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.
Library
Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.
Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.
View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.
EN - US
For Business
How it works
Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.
Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.
We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.
Products
Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.
Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.
Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.
Solutions
Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.
Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.
Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.
Customers
See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.
Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.
For Individuals
What is coaching?
Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.
Types of Coaching
Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.
Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.
Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.
Resources
Library
Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.
Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.
View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.
Blog
The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.
BetterUp Briefing
The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.
Research
Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.
Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance
Jump to section
What’s a personal SWOT analysis?
How to conduct a personal SWOT analysis
23 personal SWOT analysis examples
If a company wants to scale up its workforce, branch into a new market, or set quarterly objectives, it must first assess the risks and benefits of these changes. Much like creating a pros and cons list for a personal decision, a leadership professional will perform a SWOT analysis to examine the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
This analysis has been a crucial part of corporate planning for over 50 years, but did you know it’s also a great tool for your professional development?
A personal SWOT analysis helps you look critically at the value you bring to the workplace and ways to improve your performance. This tool is especially effective when making strategic career moves, whether you want to change jobs or receive the promotion you’ve been eyeing.
A personal SWOT analysis is a self-assessment tool focused on outlining your professional strengths and weaknesses, opportunities for growth, and threats to your success.
Conducting a SWOT analysis is helpful when setting professional development goals. This insight offers a clear picture of where you shine, areas you can improve, and opportunities that lead to success. But the process is only effective if done correctly.
When learning how to do a personal SWOT analysis, start by dividing a sheet of paper or digital document into four quadrants (one for each SWOT section). Then, it’s time to ask the hard questions, using humility and self-awareness to respond without self-serving biases. You want your analysis to be as effective as possible, and that means being honest.
Unbiased assessments are hard to come by. A Businessweek survey asked 2,000 Americans, “Are you one of the top 10% of performers in your company?” Across all subgroups (job title, age, etc.) at least 80% of respondents answered positively. While confidence is encouraged, try to be as realistic as possible when conducting your SWOT analysis.
That said, you might be working to overcome insecurities at work. Don’t downplay your employee strengths and overfocus on your weaknesses. This type of unbalanced assessment can be demotivating, disheartening, and ultimately a form of self-sabotage.
To help you create a balanced and effective analysis, here’s how to fill out each of the four sections.
Start your analysis by writing down all your personal strengths.
This is an essential part of the assessment because writing down your strengths starts the whole process off positively, which might boost your self-image.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Include strengths related to natural talent, work experience, and hard and soft skills. Take note of them all — you never know which proficiency will be the key to your success.
Now, it’s time to humble yourself (just a little) by examining your personal weaknesses.
Write down the places where you have room to improve, the bad habits you need to ditch, and anything else that might prevent you from being your best self at work.
Ask yourself the following questions:
This part of your SWOT analysis encourages you to look honestly at yourself to make the changes and build the habits that will lead to your success. And, as a bonus, this exercise makes answering “What are your weaknesses?” easier in a job interview.
So far, you’ve focused on your individual work performance. It’s time to broaden your scope and look at career opportunities.
Consider potential growth within your industry, company, and current position. Are you currently poised for the career growth you want?
To find out, ask yourself questions like:
Finally, address the potential threats that could get in the way of meeting your goals. These include external factors, like an unstable economy or competition from your coworkers, and internal struggles, like bad habits or a lack of education.
Ask yourself questions like:
Now, your personal SWOT analysis is complete. Use this document to brainstorm goals and strategize action plans as you advance your career.
It’s clear that a SWOT analysis is essential for strategic career planning. But what does this analysis look like in practice? Here are several examples to help you understand how to complete this self-assessment.
Your SWOT analysis is like a roadmap, showing you the paths you can take for self-improvement. But having a map is only one step of your journey — now you need to chart your course.
After completing your assessment, make an action plan that helps you achieve your goals. Here are two ways of doing this:
Matching categories means using your strengths to correct your weaknesses. This is a great method for mitigating threats, as you use your skill set to improve overall performance.
Let’s say you listed “creativity” as a strength and “time management” as a weakness. Look for ways to use your creativity to manage your time more effectively. You might start bullet journaling to track your schedule and daily goals.
Spinning the negative involves turning threats into positives by being proactive. Recognizing career development threats early on means you can take steps to avoid them before they block your path.
If you listed “increased competition” as a risk to your position, consider taking some online courses or in-person seminars to pad your portfolio. This might set you apart from your colleagues and secure your job.
With a definition, guide, and examples in hand, you’re bound to conduct a good analysis. Make it great by following these tips:
Ask for help: While this analysis is personal, that doesn’t mean you need to go about it alone. And an outsider’s perspective might offer new insights.
Ask a trusted friend, coworker, or mentor to consider analysis questions with you, like what you’re naturally good at and whether your industry is changing. Their input offers you a more well-rounded and objective analysis.
Dig deeper: When considering your strengths and weaknesses, a couple things might pop up immediately. Maybe your parents have always ragged on you for being a perfectionist, or your friends regularly affirm your loyalty.
While these are great aspects to devote time to, you might be surprised what you find if you dig deeper, and this deeper dive might reward you with more fulfilling growth.
For example, you might discover that you tend to micromanage your direct reports. If you hadn’t taken your search a level further you mightn’t have stumbled upon this important improvement area.
Reward yourself with self-care: Conducting these analyses is hard and emotionally challenging work. You might not love the weaknesses or risks you stumble across, and it takes grit to continue forward, completing your analysis and working toward improvement. Reward yourself for all this hard work with some self-care, like a bath or some reading.
Leverage motivational techniques: Post-analysis, use techniques like creating a vision board, reciting positive affirmations, and journaling to help you reach your self-improvement goals. These tools will help you focus on your objectives and remind you of the finish line when you need more motivation.
A personal SWOT analysis is an excellent tool for setting professional development goals. Whether you’re a new graduate starting your career, a seasoned professional climbing the ladder, or a worker looking to make a big change, this assessment defines your path forward.
Now all you have to do is take the first step on your roadmap.
Make meaningful changes and become the best version of yourself. BetterUp's professional Coaches are here to support your personal growth journey.
Make meaningful changes and become the best version of yourself. BetterUp's professional Coaches are here to support your personal growth journey.
Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships.
With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.
How it works
Products
Solutions
Customers
What is coaching?
Types of Coaching
Resources