Personal Swot

Example of a Personal Leadership SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis
(rev 2008)
Strengths
• Compulsive
• Strong follow-through
• Articulate
• Writes well
• Balanced work-life perspective
• Multi-interested (e.g., work, recreational activities [e.g., curling, golf, etc.])
• Ambitious
Weaknesses
• Strong need to “get things done and off my list” with consequence of getting it done right
away, thereby undermining the benefits of more careful deliberation over time
• Compulsiveness sometimes causes me to begrudge being given tasks, i.e., stress of many
tasks and need to do each carefully can lead me to think unkindly about the people and/or
circumstance creating the task
• Can be impatient, i.e., not tolerate those who do not understand (“suffer fools poorly”)
• Time pressure causes stress and can lead to emotional “hijacking”
• Do not handle multiple immediately competing demands well
Opportunities
• To engage others in providing feedback about their experience of me
• To receive coaching in service of improving my leadership skills
• To learn from others in similar roles to mine
• To enhance my ability to manage the need to complete task quickly in order to be able to
deliberate more carefully
• To enhance my equanimity about work-related tasks
Threats
• Time pressure, which can derail my plan for self-improvement because it catapults me
back to my “usual” habits
• The multitude of everyday demands, which conspires against self-reflection
• Etc.

Example of a Personal Developmental Plan
Issue

Personal Action Plan

External demands
(e.g., travel, etc.)

Carefully assess each invitation to assure its necessity; explain my
travel demands to the department; delegate clear responsibility for
decision-making when I am absent
Assure I am sensitive to “winners” and “losers” as I create new
department roles; explain these choices to those chosen and those not
and to the group as a whole; “tell one on myself,” e.g., offer to the
group examples...