Have you hit a plateau? Have you grown complacent? If so, I get it. It has been a tough year. Because of different classroom structures and schedules as a result of the pandemic, I wasn’t able to teach my college classes like I normally do. I had to tell myself that this year, good enough was good enough. And in times like these, it’s okay to just hold the status quo and give yourself a little extra grace. But it’s not okay to stay on the plateau indefinitely. Maybe it’s time to open yourself up to new challenges and possibilities after a long season of making due.
For the past week or so, we’ve been talking about how to rebrand and market yourself—you know, the type of stuff that can bring you to new heights after you’ve been on the plateau for a while. So today I want to give you a specific tool to help you start climbing again. You may have heard of it. It’s called a SWOT analysis.
What is a SWOT analysis?
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is used in many settings. For example, you can see how Home Depot used SWOT to identify internal and external factors affecting their company. SWOT can work for a company, like Home Depot, or for an individual assessment. Check out the full description of SWOT with complete questions for each section and an example of a personal SWOT analysis here. Today, however, we’ll adapt it specifically for presenters.
One of the things many people like about the SWOT analysis is that it allows you to break things into a present focus and a future focus. The strengths and weaknesses part of the assessment allows you to take stock of what you currently have. However, when you move into thinking about opportunities and threats, your focus shifts from present to future. It moves your eyes from the plateau to the peak. So let’s get started.
Strengths
It’s time to sit down and analyze your speaking strengths. What is it that you do naturally well as a speaker? It could be your warm and engaging delivery style. Or maybe you have the ability to help walk your audience through difficult concepts, so clarity is your strength. Take a few moments to brainstorm these things that set you apart. Now that you’ve listed them, put them in numerical order. What is your strongest skill as speaker? Put that at the top of your list and continue down accordingly.
Weaknesses
No one really enjoys thinking about their weaknesses, let alone writing them all down. But this is an important step if you want to grow. So just get it over with. List the things about yourself as a speaker that you feel could use some improvement. And then put them in order from your greatest weakness to your least.
Opportunities
Remember, this is the part the of the SWOT analysis where you can focus on the future. What opportunities do you see ahead of you? Remember, these aren’t just the ones that are waiting at your doorstep. They are the ones you can create for yourself. Say for instance, you were invited to give a talk at a local college for majors in your field and it went well. It wouldn’t take much effort on your part to contact other local universities to make them aware of the talk and to offer to be a guest lecturer. After all, you already have the presentation completed. This opportunity could give you exposure and possibly create new leads. Spend some time thinking about how to recognize and capitalize on opportunities that exist for you as a presenter. Then, once again, prioritize them.
Threats
The last part of the SWOT analysis is to identify threats to your future growth. What is it that is keeping you on the plateau? It could be that your market is too saturated. How can you carve out a niche that distinguishes you from other presenters? Or maybe your threat is that you don’t prioritize self-enrichment. How can you create specific goals to overcome this? Once you’ve listed them, follow the same pattern from above. Put them in order with your biggest threat first on the list.
John Boitnott of JotForm reminds us that all of the categories of SWOT overlap and relate—they don’t occur in a vacuum. So take a moment to look for connections. Did you list laziness as one of your weaknesses? Could that be the reason you also listed lack of self-enrichment as a threat to your success? Boitnott says, “The solution is to identify the strengths that can leverage the opportunities and minimize the threats. At the same time, you should determine how to turn weaknesses into opportunities and eliminate weaknesses that would otherwise result in threats.”
Ready to start climbing again? A SWOT analysis can help you get off of that plateau.
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