SWOT Analysis For Self-Protection

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur

If you’re involved with self-protection, i.e. martial arts, hand gun training, self-defense classes or the protection of others, i.e. executive protection, police, bodyguard etc you are most likely to “succeed” if you use your talents to their fullest extent.

In this case “success” would naturalize a threat without harm to you or the person(s) you are protecting.

Similarly, you’ll suffer fewer problems if you know what your weaknesses are, and if you manage these weaknesses so that they don’t matter in the work you do.

So how you go about identifying these strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them?

Personal SWOT Analysis

Making the Most of Your Talents and Opportunities.

The SWOT Analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats) has been used in business settings for some time, I use it in my coaching of athletes and for personal success, and it is a useful technique that helps in the area of “protection” as well.

What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise present potential danger to you and others.

If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself and further develop the specialized talents and abilities you need to achieve success in the field of self-protection and the protection of others.

Below are some questions in each of the 4 areas SWOT.  These are only a few to get you thinking.  Use these to analyze yourself first in your training and then think of yourself in potential situations and use it again.

The benefit here is that you’ll be able to examine certain scenarios calmly and then be able to practice them.  The other is this process will create a thinking pattern or strategy that you can instantly utilize in a “live” situation.

Remember when you do this exercise everything is tied together.  So at first some of the questions may not seem associated with self-protection or the protection of others.  And when you begin to assess the influence the behaviors the question exposes you’ll understand how this aspect can affect your safety and the safety of others.

Strengths

Think about your strengths in relation to the people around you. For example, if you’re a great at the use of a kubaton  and the people around you are also great with a kubaton, then this is not likely to be a strength in your current role – it may be a necessity.

Consider this from your own perspective, and from the point of view of the people around you. And don’t be modest or shy – be as objective as you can.

And if you have any difficulty with this, write down a list of your personal characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths!

• What advantages do you have that others don’t have (for example, skills, certifications, education, or connections)?
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• What personal resources can you access?
• What do other people see as your strengths?
• Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
• What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?
• What motivates you to learn?

Weaknesses

Again, consider this from a personal/internal perspective and an external perspective. Do other people see weaknesses that you don’t see? Do co-workers or teammates consistently outperform you in key areas? Be realistic – it’s best to face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

• What tasks do you usually avoid because you don’t feel confident doing them?
• What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?
• Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?
• What are your negative work habits, i.e., are you often late, are you disorganized, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress?
• Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your field? For instance, if you have to conduct meetings on a regular basis, a fear of public speaking would be a major weakness.

Opportunities

When assessing opportunities it is important to look at your strengths, and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities – and look at your weaknesses, and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating those weaknesses.

• What new technology can help you? Or can you get help from others or from people?
• What opportunities are open to you?
• Do you have a network of strategic contacts to help you, or offer good advice?
• What trends do you see in your area of interest, and how can you take advantage of them?
• Where have you succeeded before?
• Are any of your competitors failing to do something important? If so, can you take advantage of their mistakes?
• What knowledge/experience can you take advantage of?
• How can you turn your strengths into opportunities?
• Do your friends, family, customers or vendors complain about something in your industry/area of interest? If so, could you create an opportunity by offering a solution?

Threats

Performing this analysis will often provide key information – it can point out what needs to be done and put problems into perspective.

• What obstacles do you currently face that stand in the way of your training or career?
• What might de-motivate you or de-rail you taking action, or worse yet, cause you to freeze?
• What’s the day-to-day challenge?
• Do your weaker areas pose any additional threats?
• Who is your competition and how are they becoming successful?
• Is your area of interest/industry changing?
• Does changing technology threaten your area of interest?

Again, these are just a few questions to help with self-examination.  If the language used seems confusing, i.e. competition, change it to “teammate” or “assailant.”   And again I would run through this exercise in looking at yourself in training and in the area if live conflict.

Do this on regular basis so that you will keep exposing all four areas and you can then work on honing your strengths and opportunities and diminishing your weakness and threats.

You can download a pdf copy of this post here SWOT

Please let me know your thoughts about this exercise in relation to self-protection, executive protection, self-defense, bodyguard and the protection of others.