This week, I’m going to encourage you to use SWOT analysis, perhaps in a slightly different way to what you’re used to.  

SWOT, if you’re unfamiliar with it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.  

And this is usually used at quite a macro level in an organisation to evaluate an organisation as a whole.  

But this week, I’m going to encourage you to S.W.O.T. yourself!  

Firstly, make a list of your strengths: 

• What are you really good at?  

• What are you naturally brilliant at?  
• What do other people say you’re good at?  

And the things that you just find so easy? That’s a natural strength for you. And it’s easy for you to think that’s easy for everyone else as well. And it’s not! It’s because it’s easy to you, because it’s one of your strengths. 

Anything you find super-easy at work, write that down as one of your strengths.  

Weaknesses, or things that you might need to work on and develop, you can write a list for that as well.  

But I really want you to focus on your strengths and stay working in your strengths as much as possible.  

Some of your weaknesses might be things that you just don’t know yet, and might be solved with a training need.  

Opportunities! What opportunities are there for you to add greater value, as a Finance Business Partner, this week, this month, this quarter, this year? 

Really explore all the opportunities, not just in your workplace. It might be that you find external opportunities as well. You might volunteer on a panel, you might volunteer as something for a school or a charity.  

Where can you add value as a finance professional in a Finance Business Partnering way?  

What opportunities are there for you to do that internally and externally?  

And threats? Or risks? What are the threats or risks to you achieving this?  

What are the threats to you using strengths more or to developing and finding those opportunities? And how can you mitigate those threats and risks? How can you overcome them?  

If you have someone that always says no, for example, how can you get them to say yes? Or who else can you approach to achieve the same thing?  

So, think broadly and widely.  

S.W.O.T. analysis is amazing to do on yourselves.  

And it should be a living, breathing, working document done regularly and updated regularly. Because things change, of course!  

There are more opportunities all the time.  

Keep identifying those and keep working towards them using your unique brilliance, your unique strengths.  

If you have a Finance team as well, you can S.W.O.T. your team.  

• What do you stand for?  
• What are the strengths of your team?  
• What are the weaknesses of your team?  
• How can you overcome those weaknesses?  
• Where can you fill those gaps?  

• What are the opportunities for your team to add ever greater value in the workplace?  

And what are the threats or risks to you achieving that?  

• How do you overcome those?  

Wishing you every success using your S.W.O.T. analysis for yourself and all your Finance team this week. 

And, of course, as always wishing you success on your own Finance Business Partner growth journey this week. 😊