Personal SWOT Analysis for Career Growth and Organizational Fit

The article discusses the importance of conducting a personal SWOT analysis for career growth and organizational fit. It includes a discussion of self-assessment tools such as the Gallup Score and personality tests, as well as naturally occurring data. The article also includes a SWOT analysis and two self-assessment tools.

Running head: PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Personal SWOT analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................4
Research methodology:...................................................................................4
My approach with the assignment:...............................................................4
Sourcing information about myself:..............................................................4
Discussion about self-assessment tools:......................................................5
Gallup Score:.............................................................................................5
Personality test:.........................................................................................5
Discussion of naturally occurring data:........................................................6
SWOT analysis:................................................................................................6
Two self-assessment tools:...........................................................................7
Gallup test:................................................................................................7
Personality tests:.......................................................................................8
Strengths:.....................................................................................................9
Weaknesses:.................................................................................................9
Opportunity and threats..................................................................................9
Diversity:.......................................................................................................10
Diversity management experience:............................................................10
Focus towards diversity:.............................................................................10
Diversity management experience:...............................................................10
Organisational fit:..........................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................11
References:....................................................................................................12
Appendix: Gallup test....................................................................................14

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Executive Summary:
The roles of managers have undergone dramatic changes in the recent
periods due to changes in the macroeconomic market scenario. The
managers are not mere bridges between the management and the lower
rung employees. They function as critical points of contact between the
organizations employing them and the market. Changes in the external
environmental scenario like significant political and economic changes have
rippling effects on the companies as well, especially multinational
corporations like Cerner. The companies have no control over these changes
and have to adjust to them. The managers today are the leaders of
organizational changes which are taking place in the macroeconomic
landscape. The managers in order to lead their subordinates efficiently need
to conduct self-analysis to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This
analysis plays significant role in their future career growth as well as
establishing organizational fit.

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Introduction:
My name is Ramya Prabha Gaddipati and have a rich work experience
of working with Cerner Corporation for seven years. I started working with
Cerner at a junior level and got promoted to middle level manager. I have
gained a rich knowledge of working with a multinational company in the
health care industry. I can point out that the organisation has a very
strong impact on my professional growth and has been one of the
driving factors which made me pursue an MBA degree. The company
has got me to get enrolled at the Torrens University, Australia to
acquire further knowledge about management by go through an
MBA course. The purpose of this assignment is to conduct a personal
SWOT analysis followed by an analysis of my diversity management skills.
This would be followed by making a decision on the organisational fit of mine
with Cerner based on my experiences of working with the company and the
knowledge I have gained till now while pursuing the course. The discussion
would close with me summing up what I have learnt and my future
professional improvement planning.
Research methodology:
My approach with the assignment:
I can reflect out that my approach with the analysis of my
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the light of my
professional experiences as my learning from the masters of
administration course from now. I can point out that the challenges
which I have faced at Cerner prior to my joining the MBA course have driven
me to carry out a personal analysis. This analysis would actually allow me
not only realise my strong aspects but also locate my weaknesses. This
would obviously direct my further learning and self-development activities.

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Sourcing information about myself:
I sourced the information which would provide a substratum to the self-
analysis of mine from several sources. First, I undertook two personal tests
using two different tools namely Gallup score and personality tests. Then
I reflected on my career and experience I have gained while working with
Cerner Corporation. I can also opine out that I read several books on
management like which provided me with the insight into managerial
aspects like adapting management style according to the needs of the
subordinates and the situation. It would be worth mentioning that the article
titled ‘What great managers do.’ by Buckingham (2005) has helped me
gain a lot of knowledge in management. The article mentions that
efficient managers have profound knowledge about the abilities and
competencies of their subordinates. They consider these factors
while allocating jobs and set targets to be achieved accordingly.
According to me, working with Cerner has developed this capability to realise
the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates. This knowledge of my
subordinates help me to distribute job responsibilities equably among my
subordinates. I can reflect that this managerial approach of mine prevented
even the junior most employees from feeling intimidated. This reduced the
chances of conflict or resentment and enforcement of team collaboration. I
can further mention that this application of the teachings from the article
helps me to ensure great team performance at Cerner (Domnica, 2012).
Discussion about self-assessment tools:
I can mention here that while conducting the self-analysis of mine I
went through tests on two different tools namely, the Gallup Score and
personality tests. This section would provide a deeper into the two self-
assessment tools.
Gallup Score:
The Gallup Score is a self-assessment tool which is engages employees
in assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. The weakness in turn

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
enable them to recognise opportunities which they can gain by working on
the short comings (News.gallup.com, 2018). As far as my own Gallup test is
concerned, I can point out that I have considered five aspects in the Gallup
test. They are achiever, responsibility, restorative, arranger and
ideation. Faraon et al. (2014) point out that responsibility and restorative
behaviour enable managers to maintain steady communication with the
employees which enable to deal with tough situations more efficiently. I can
point out that this responsibility aspect of mine has helped me to create
healthy relationship with employees. Domnica (2012) mentions that
managers should be awareness about the impact their decisions have on the
employees in both ways of the organisational hierarchy. Longenecker,
Neubert and Fink (2007) point out that managers should not only be aware
about their impacts on others but also the impact of others on them. Thus, in
this light it can be mentioned that the author actually supports the previous
authors. I can reflect over here that my sense of responsibility has helped me
to act in responsible way by considering the impacts of my decisions on the
client and consequently on the revenue generation of the Cerner. I on the
other hand remain aware how decisions and actions by my colleagues and
customers can affect me, Here again my restorative and responsible attitude
enable me to take right decisions to use the impacts to my advantage and
take appropriate actions to mitigate negative effects of their decisions, if
any.
Personality test:
The personality test tool is a tool to test the personality traits of a
person. The tool divides the personality traits into three types namely
analyst, diplomats and sentinels (16personalities.com, .2018). As far as I am
concerned, the test showed that I have strong practical skills, have strong
sense of duty and very loyal.

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Discussion of naturally occurring data:
I can reflect that while conducting self-analysis, I obtained views from
several naturally data sources. I asked my references about my strengths
and weaknesses. Ashford and Deter (2015) opine that while conduct a
personal SWOT analysis, the concerned people should locate the natural
sources of feedback. I can mention that the performance appraisal
interview which the senior manager enabled me to analyse my strengths and
weaknesses, both personal as well as professional. Kassing (2009) adds to
the opinion of the previous authors and mention tat while conducting
personal analysis employees should identify colleagues especially seniors
whose views are likely to have strong influences on their professional
careers. The senior manager whose feedback I sought pointed out several
strong points of mine like decision making power and great sense of
responsibility, which have also been pointed out by Gallup. However, he also
pointed out several shortcomings which I suffer from like extreme ideation
does at time make my assumptions and decisions unrealistic. I also followed
Merindol and Versailles (2007) mentions that employees should development
critical awareness about the views their peers and subordinates have about
them. I can point out that I have obtained feedback from others like
relatives, peers, senior colleagues as well as subordinates. They too
pointed out several aspects of mine both positive and negative. These
aspects would provide avenues on which I can work to improve to strengthen
or increase my strong points. For example, a colleague of mine pointed out
that I am very impulsive at times. This showed me that I require to undergo
meditation and anger management classes. I can further mention that as a
senior manager I would be required to exercise great control over my
emotions to deal with challenging situations while making decisions.

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT analysis:
The following table would outline the strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats with respect to the self-analysis of mine based on
the Gallup test which I took.
Strengths:
1. Achiever.
2. Responsibility or strong sense of
executing duties.
3. Restorative
4. Arranger
5. Ideation
Weaknesses:
1. Extreme ideation can result in
formation of unrealistic decisions.
2. May not receive support of
colleagues while restoring tasks.
3. The co-workers may not be
responsible and thus hamper all
over productivity.
Opportunities:
1. Can development change
management skills.
2. Can take anger management
initiatives like meditation and
counselling.
Threats:
1. Average knowledge about
technology.
2. Fast changing market conditions
and requirement to change
leadership skills accordingly.
Two self-assessment tools:
It would be pertinent mentioning that I went through two self-
assessment tests using two different tools namely, Gallup test and
personality test.
Gallup test:
The Gallup test results furnished above show that my test was based
on five parameters on Gallup tool. They were achiever, responsibility,
restorative, arranger and ideation pointing out to five strengths of mine.
The first positive aspect of mine pointed out in the SWOT analysis is that of

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
an achiever. This means that I am capable of taking responsibilities and
facing challenges. This also means that I derive immense job satisfaction in
taking up and executing job responsibilities.
The next positive attribute of mine as pointed out by the Gallup scale
is that I have a great sense of responsibility. This attribute of mine actually
complements my first quality of that of an achiever. This is because
achieving of objectives requires managers to take responsibility to ensure
that the subordinates reporting to him achieve their individual performance
parameters. The managers are also required to manage adverse situations
like conflicts and consistently poorly performing employees.
The third and fourth positive attributes of mine as mentioned in the
Gallup score are restorative and arranger. I can point out that these two
strengths of mine are actually two sides of the same coin. I can state that as
far as Cerner Corporation is concerned, the organisation operates in more
than ten countries across Asia, North America, Europe and South America.
The company is subjected to immense market pressure to operate
sustainably as well as profitability by reducing losses and expenditure to the
possible extent. Moreover, the economic stagnation in the European market
and growing economic importance of the Asian markets, the business
organisation comes under immense pressure to cater to both the markets
using its resources. This puts immense pressure on managers at all levels to
restore and arrange business units which are not performing well to make
them sustainable. I can also reflect that I have participated in several
restoration projects of Cerner which allow me to showcase these two
strengths of mine.

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
Personality tests:
The second test which I undertook was Personality tests which pointed
out three strengths of mine outlined in the SWOT analysis above. The
summary of the test is mentioned below.
Strengths:
The first positive aspect of mine pointed out is the strong set of
practical skills of mine. I can point out that working with Cerner has enabled
me to take part in several projects and serve clients satisfactorily. These
opportunities have enabled me to develop and sharpen my practical
knowledge. I can state that the strong sense of duty which is my second
strength as per the personality test has enables me to take up responsibility
and deliver performance on time. The third strong aspect of mine is loyalty
to superiors and subordinates. I can point out this loyalty has helped to

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
sustain in Cerner which is a very dynamic organisation (Alimo-Metcalfe,
2010). The immense business requirement of Cerner presents new
challenges before managers which require develop new competences and
skills. Some of the managers fail to adapt to these situations and resign.
However, I have sustained in Cerner in spite of these challenges and in fact
developing new skills. Thus, I can finally close the discussion by mentioning
that remaining loyal to Cerner has helped me to grow professionally (Olsson
& Walker, 2003).
Weaknesses:
I can reflect that I have several weaknesses though the two personality
assessment tools do not discern clearly. The weakness in my attribute which
I detected was my low ability to adapt to changes which took place when
Cerner shifting from waterfall model to agile model. This required the
employees to change their modes of operation to adapt to the changes. The
managers could not manage the organisational change towards agile
method efficiently actually pointed out to the dearth of change management
capability among the lower and middle level managers (Ashford & Detert,
2015). The second weakness which I can allude to in me is my extreme
ideation which was pointed by my colleague. The third weakness which came
to the forefront during the shift of Cerner to embrace Agile method was my
lack of adaptability to changes. The poor adaptability which the
managers including me showed during adoption of Agile proved our lack of
change management skills.
Opportunity and threats
The opportunities which came to my notice from the personal
assessment of mine were that I can develop my change management skills
and undergo counselling or meditation sessions to reduce my impulsive
nature. This would enable me to focus more on my profession which would
enhance my managerial position. Newly involving technology, continuously
changing market environments and new technological developments

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
rendering previous technological set ups have proved to be three big threats
Cerner is facing (Olsson & Walker, 2003). Considering the above SWOT
analysis I can mention in a nut shell that I am in a stable managerial
position at Cerner awaiting the next appraisal.
Diversity:
Diversity management experience:
As far as diversity management experience is concerned, I can point
out that I am average at it. I can mention that diversity management
capability of mine is a strength and has helped me to tackle several
challenging situations. I can point out that I am good at communicating with
employees across different cultural backgrounds. However, I can also point
out that I face some problems while dealing with newly hired employees
(McLean & Unter, 2010). Thus, I can infer from this experience of mine that
diversity management is a strength but my diversity management skills are
average and hence requires further strengthening.
Focus towards diversity:
I emphasise to focusing on diversity management is a great strength
for multinational business organisations like Cerner. Cerner has a very
diverse employee culture which engages employees from different countries.
This acquisition of talents from culturally diverse markets allow the company
to pool in business ideas which in turn promotes innovation and productivity
(Brannen, Piekkari & Tietze, 2017). Thus, I can infer that diversity
management is a strong point of multinational organisations like Cerner.
Diversity management experience:
I can refer to an experience on diversity management which I
experienced while functioning as an assistant manager at Cerner. A
senior manager once behaved rudely with a female employee because she
was not performing well. I came to know on conversing with the female
employee that she felt intimidated by the body language of certain senior

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
employees of the team. The employee was then placed in my team and I first
understood her strengths as well as their weakness. I found about her
competencies, competencies and experience. I inducted her to the other
team members and encouraged them to help if required, since she was new
to the team. I allocated her target upon having detailed discussion with her. I
can recall she overachieved the assigned target and got appraised (Ford,
2005). I learnt from this situation that better knowledge about diversity
would enable me to deal more efficiently with clients from diverse markets,
thus promoting development in management career.
Organisational fit:
Cerner Corporation is a medical information technology firm which is
domiciled in the United States and listed on the NASDAQ (Cerner.com, 2018).
The company operates in more than a ten of countries across North America,
Europe, South America and Asia. I can touch on that the company has a
strong positive organisational culture and I have succeeded in established a
strong organisational fit with Cerner. I can point out based on the SWOT
analysis of mine that I would continue to work with the company in future
Conclusion:
I have learnt a lot of things while working with Cerner like diversity
management and would attend trainings as well as workshops to grow as an
employee of the multinational company. I can point out that managers have
to undergo continue self-analysis to recognise their weaknesses and
limitations which prevent them from leading their subordinates efficiently.
They should encourage continuous communication both from superiors as
well as subordinates. This would allow them to gain feedback and point out
weaknesses which would in turn form the basis of their training needs. They
can form a self-development strategy or plan to strengthen their leadership
skills. Finally I can end the discussion that since organisations are dynamic,
managers have to be dynamic in developing their skills and competencies to
maintain a consistent organisational fit with their employers.

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
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Appendix: Gallup test

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PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS