Hi, Stephen:

Thanks for combining the strategic planning model with personal development. I would just add one more element for individuals:

For individuals, there is one more ingredient that is often lacking for corporations - passion or interest. Often times, your passion or interest is directly tied to your strengths, but not always. The easiest path to success is when you comebine your passion/interest, strengths with opportunities. This has been said enough so I will just stop here. :)

Additionally, it helps to have a mentor/coach to work with you on your SWOT analysis. This person can often provide some fresh and objective insight, and can also help you to be accountable with your action plans. To be honest, I don't have such a person, and would need to find one.

Thanks a lot Stephen for your postings. I like reading this forum everyday during meal time.

Cheers

Jing  

When doing a SWOT analysis, take a Word or Excel document, title it Strengths and then list your internal strengths in one column; in another column, put a weighting of each item's relative importance.  Then sort on this weighting column so your strongest attributes are listed first. This forces you to recognize the value of your various strengths. Take another document and title it Weaknesses. List your weaknesses in one column; in an adjacent column, put a weighting of each item’s relative importance. Then sort on this weighting column so your strongest weaknesses are listed first. This forces you to recognize and rank your weaknesses. Follow the same process for the external Opportunities and Threats: create a sheet for each; write your list in one column; record your weightings in another; sort so the highest weighted items are listed first. This again forces you to recognize and rank the external Opportunities and Threats.

Now create a GRID. Listing the Strengths and Weaknesses at the top and Opportunities and Threats along the left side. At the intersection of Strengths and Opportunities, you list what strengths can be used to take advantage of specific opportunities. At the intersection of Strengths and Threats, you list what strengths can be used to reduce specific threats. You repeat this process for Weaknesses. At the intersection of Weaknesses and Opportunities, you list what weaknesses you must be overcome to take advantage of  specific opportunities. At the intersection of Weaknesses and Threats, you list what weaknesses you must overcome to reduce specific threats.

By formalizing the process, you create a vehicle for incremental improvements and continual change that will generate many career successes.

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, ISP

Hi Jing,

Thank you for your many insightful comments. They add considerable value to this discussion.

Your comment about passion/interest is supported by S. Somasegar, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice-President Developer Division. Soma provides this career tip: “Follow your passion and all the right things will follow.”

A good source for a mentor/coach is the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS). This non-profit national society exists to provide a community for IT professionals. Moreover, this role is often supported by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals or MVPs. The interview series with Nestor Portillo, running this week, provides some insights. Finally, this forum, provides a way to collaborate and obtain feedback.

If you or others want direct feedback or added third-party insight, I would be happy to provide this support. I provide my e-mail address and phone number, in this forum, for this reason. Feel free to contact me at any time.

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki

Monthly personal SWOT analysis.

IT Stuff

This is cool. We’ve spoken about how to break in to the IT Field before on the show, and we’ve even touched lightly on how to keep yourself a viable asset in light of outsourcing. Stephen Ibaraki over at the Canadian IT Manager Blog provides a nice little road map on keeping ourselves from becoming stagnant, complacent, and in a career stall — a Monthly SWOT Analysis for Career Growth.

Good stuff!

-KHD

Hi, Stephen:

Thanks for your nice comments. I would certainly like to share more thoughts here with fellow IT professionals. I am sure I will bother you very soon once I feel I have made enough contribution. :)

The question I often hear, sometimes from other IT professionals, sometimes from deep within myself, is this: why shall we continue to grow? This question, obviously, has both rational and emotional aspects. It is easy to address the rational aspects - growth brings more self-efficacy, self-esteem, emotional strength and maturity, deeper satisfaction and better relationships, and often times more wealth and freedom etc. However, let's not forget rational argument alone often times is not enough. Just look at all the smokers out there. Do you think they do not understand the rational argument against smoking?

For this reason, we must explore the emotional aspect of personal growth. What is the emotional appeal of personal growth? This, obviously, is a big topic and could vary from person to person. I will just share my personal metaphor here.

My personal metaphor of personal growth is best illustrated with the film Lord of the Rings. Now you must think I am crazy to talk about a mythic story on an IT blog. But please bear with me for a moment, and let me ask you this question - what is the theme of this story? Or rather, what is special about this myth compared to all the other great myths?

The answer, at least the way I look at it, is that this mythical story is very similar to all the great legends and myths in human history. Let's just list a few:

The Quest for Golden Fleece
The Quest for Golden Apple
The Odyssey (the Quest for Home)
The Quest for the Holy Grail
The Quest for the Original Buddhist Scrolls (Chinese)
The Viking Sagas (Quest for the New World)
Star Trek (Quest for new worlds, civilizations)
Lord of the Rings (the Quest for the Ring)

Now the common theme of these great legends and myths is quite obvious. And personal growth, in this context, is about going on a Great Quest, a Legendary Journey, an Adventure, a Mission Impossible, through the many toils and tribulations of life, to risk everything we have, to rise up above all the impossible challenges, to eventually become that great hero that is within all of us.

So I always think about our young hero Frodo, in Lord of the Rings, and his great Quest. I also think about the heros in all the other legends and myths. These great stories are really not about the superheros. They are metaphors about life, and what a great life ought to be. That is the emotional or rather inspirational appeal of personal growth for me.

Thank you for all your time. I realize this is a long read and appreciate your patience. I hope I have brought you an interesting perspective.

Cheers

Jing

Jason,

I'm glad the blog is of use to your audience...

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki

There's a good collection there at "In the Trenches." I'll check in periodically at the site. The comment about outsourcing is a good one since an IT Pro can become commoditized and the only way to combat it effectively is by continual incremental improvements. It’s the same with companies except the improvements are in innovation and business agility. The same principles that apply in business also apply to a career. The idea is that you think of your career like a business.

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, ISP
Vice-President, Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)
Certified (ISP), CIPS Fellow (FCIPS)

Graham,

Taking every opportunity to share, collaborate or teach are all elements of mentorship and in turn the IT Pro receives incremental skill growth from the interaction. Plus the relationships formed work for a lifetime. These relationships or networks form a powerful resource ecosystem. This accentuates the Community of IT!

Graham, you are mentoring in so many ways:
- at Microsoft’s EnergizeIT in Vancouver on June 24th as one of the leads;
- here in this forum by contributing your insightful comments and blogs based upon your long history of actually “doing it”;
- by stepping up to the plate as President of VANTUG;
- and in your “day job” of teaching and guiding.

The common element is volunteerism and I encourage all IT Pros to take a little time out of their schedules to get involved. A little here, a little there adds up and makes a commanding statement about the inherent value locked in IT Pros.

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki

Jing,

I very much enjoyed your thoughts on the emotional component of personal growth and your examples of the great “Quest.” This relates to the “PASSION” that Soma talks about.

You also talk about inspiration. Earlier in your career, who were your key mentors, those that inspired you and why? How did they contribute to your growth?

Jing by contributing here, you are providing a body of knowledge and experiences that provide inspiration to others. Moreover, your willingness to volunteer at EnergizeIT adds to the ecosystem that I talk about in my response to Graham.

One added note, world renowned scientist, Dr. Gary Birch, executive director of the Neil Squire Society, is due to be at EnergizeIT in Vancouver. Neil Squire is the charity that is being sponsored at the Vancouver EnergizeIT event. Gary developed some of the key enabling technologies for the disabled. I’m hoping that he will given a few minutes to describe his research to the IT Pros at the event. I find this work is also a quest and inspirational.

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki

Adam,

You make some fine points. There is value in seeking external assessments and from a variety of perspectives.

In terms of an MBA, an "executive" MBA provides a real-world aspect and not a purely academic credential; extended relationships with other practicing managers and executives plus the added business insights. Moreover, it can be done online from accredited schools here in Canada such as AU. I did an interview with the Director of the AU program, Dr. Lindsay Redpath that provides added information:
http://www.stephenibaraki.com/cips/v55/lredpath.html

I talked of this before, I had a conversation with a serial entrepreneur on the path of his next successful startup which I believe will be a Billion+ operation. Interestingly, the greatest value he received from his Harvard MBA was the relationships he formed which were of key importance throughout his long career. This feeling is seconded by another senior executive who created the largest sales channel for Intel and is now the founder of the largest new media company. He did his "executive" MBA for the relationships.

Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki