Energised? Drained? Stuck between?

I have found the personal SWOT quite a hard to exercise to conclude at times.

There was never a problem getting lots of ideas, even if my clients were a little reticent on their strengths and weaknesses. However we would often review the results, take the step back and ask "what does that tell us", and find it hard to draw the conclusions.

This is probably because it is normal for connections between information to take time to percolate and emerge from the slightly clunky creative parts of our brains.  It seems to me an easier process for larger groups and on broader subjects.

A really productive way to work through this is to ask personal energy questions.  This requires a combination of some of the ideas of for validation of personal strengths from Martin Seligman with the SWOT.

Look at the strengths.  Ask which one is the client's real sweet spot strength.  As well as the skill that knocks the ball out of the ground, it is also common to find it is an energy giving skill, so: they lose track of time, it's effortless or energy rises, it feels like the real them, they feel purposeful using it, they get a real buzz etc.

Doing this on a mind map, I usually colour it in green.

Then I ask for the antithesis on the weaknesses side...so this is the weakness that, should it be triggered, is the worst thing that could happen, makes time stand still or drag, drains energy really fast, makes the guts twist and the head spin, and tends to effect everything else.

I call it "the drain" and colour it red.

You may not like my names or colours: feel free to change them!  If you do try this approach I think you will find that the drain blocks the sweet spot in some vital aspect of your clients' business and personal life, and it is a good place to start to unpack unconscious preferences.

Have fun with my souped up SWOT, all due recognition to those that generated the original ideas, even if not usually served up quite like this meal .