How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis for Your Team or Department

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A SWOT analysis isn't just for corporate strategy days. It's one of the most practical tools a team leader can use to create clarity and momentum.

What Is a SWOT Analysis?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It's a simple 2×2 matrix that helps you organise your analysis:

• Strengths (Internal, Positive): What does your team do well? What unique resources or capabilities do you have?
• Weaknesses (Internal, Negative): Where does your team need to improve? What resources do you lack?
• Opportunities (External, Positive): What external trends or changes can you take advantage of?
• Threats (External, Negative): What external factors could harm your team's performance or success?

The power of the SWOT analysis lies in its simplicity and its ability to generate strategic insights by connecting your internal capabilities with your external environment.

Preparing for Your SWOT Analysis

Gather Your Team

A SWOT analysis is most effective when it's a collaborative exercise. Involve your entire team in the process. This not only leads to a more comprehensive analysis but also builds buy-in and a shared sense of ownership for the resulting strategy.

Set the Stage

Clearly explain the purpose of the exercise. Emphasise that it's a blame-free process designed to help the team improve. Create an environment of psychological safety where everyone feels comfortable sharing their honest perspectives.

Come Prepared with Data

While the SWOT analysis is a qualitative exercise, it should be informed by data: team performance metrics (KPIs), employee engagement survey results, customer feedback, and a summary of recent successes and failures.

A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Brainstorm Strengths

Start on a positive note. Ask: "What are we great at?" Think about skills and expertise, unique resources, exceptional processes, and positive aspects of team culture.

Step 2: Brainstorm Weaknesses

This can be the most challenging part. Remind the team that the goal is improvement, not blame. Ask: "Where do we need to improve?" Be honest and specific—"we don't have a clear process for sharing updates between projects" is more helpful than "poor communication."

Step 3: Brainstorm Opportunities

Shift focus to the external environment. Ask: "What's happening outside of our team that we could take advantage of?" Consider market trends, new technologies, competitive landscape shifts, and organisational changes.

Step 4: Brainstorm Threats

Consider the external factors that could pose a risk. Ask: "What could get in our way?" Think about market disruptions, technological changes, competitor actions, and potential budget cuts or reorganisations.

From Analysis to Strategy: The TOWS Matrix

The real value of a SWOT analysis comes from what you do with it next. The TOWS matrix turns your analysis into a strategic plan by asking four key questions:

• Strengths–Opportunities (SO): How can we use our strengths to take advantage of our opportunities? (Primary growth strategy.)
• Weaknesses–Opportunities (WO): How can we take advantage of opportunities to overcome our weaknesses?
• Strengths–Threats (ST): How can we use our strengths to mitigate our threats?
• Weaknesses–Threats (WT): How can we minimise weaknesses and avoid threats? (Defensive strategy.)

Strengthening Your SWOT With Other Frameworks

SWOT is an excellent starting point, but combining it with other decision-making tools creates deeper strategic insight:

• Use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritise the strategic actions that emerge from your TOWS analysis by urgency and importance.
• Apply first principles thinking to challenge whether your identified strengths and weaknesses are genuinely fundamental or merely assumed.
• Run a pre-mortem analysis on your chosen SO strategy to identify failure modes before you commit resources.
• Use a weighted decision matrix when your SWOT produces multiple competing strategic options to evaluate them systematically.
• Facilitate the SWOT brainstorming using Six Thinking Hats to ensure your team examines each quadrant from multiple cognitive perspectives.

Your Next Step

A SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful tool that can help any leader gain clarity, align their team, and build a more effective strategy. The key is to not let the analysis be the end of the process, but the beginning of a strategic conversation that leads to real action.

A skilled leadership coach can facilitate your team's strategic planning process and help you turn insights into impact.

Book a free consultation to explore how coaching can elevate your team's strategic capability.

About Her Success Coach

Iveta Dulova is an executive and leadership coach for women with a decade of experience in global technology and a Masters in Coaching and Leadership from the University of Cambridge. She works with women managers, directors, and founders across technology, financial services, and consulting who want to build executive presence, negotiate with confidence, and build a career that reflects their values rather than their fears.

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