A SWOT analysis is a great tool to help you uncover your strengths, which I’ll cover in this article, and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats just around the corner. It’s a strategic tool that will help you in both your business and personal life.

In a business context, it helps you choose a niche market and differentiate yourself based on your strengths. In a personal context, it helps you clarify what direction you should take your business and how best to utilize your talents and abilities to take advantage of opportunities.

For many real estate agents, your business is an offshoot of your personality. When you go into business, you (and maybe a handful of others) wear all the hats. You answer the phones, schedule meetings, pay bills, market the firm, serve clients, follow up with leads, and so on.

During the process, you’ll realize that you may need to learn certain skills to keep up and complete the task more efficiently (or perhaps how to hire someone who can). But you’ll also meet resistance, brush up against your own personal barriers, and be required to step outside your comfort zone. It’s a great personal challenge and requires that you know yourself extremely well.

What is a Strength?

In his book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham describes a strength as an activity that you consistently get good results with and that is something that you enjoy doing.

Strengths are made up of three things – talents, knowledge, and skills. Talents are traits or patterns of thought or behavior like being inquisitive, competitive, charming, persistent, responsible, able to connect with people, or empathetic. Knowledge is made up of the facts you learn from books and in classes and your experiences that can’t be learned from books. And skills are the steps you do to complete an activity. Think of the number of steps you must complete in any “how to” guide or manual.

Uncover Your Strengths

How do you uncover your strengths? Here are a few things to think about:

1. Monitor your spontaneous reactions. What do you do on a day-to-day basis?
2. Yearnings – what were your childhood passions?
3. Rapid learnings – which types of skills do you pick up quicker than others?
4. Satisfactions – what types of positive activities to you do that make you ask “when can I do this again?”

Evaluate Your Strengths

Determining your strengths is the first step in differentiating you from all other real estate agents out there. For the next 10 minutes, take out a blank sheet of paper and list everything you’re good at. Don’t be modest, but try to be objective. List every characteristic you can think of, no matter how small. Here are some questions to get you started:

• What skills do you have?
• What is your education?
• Who do you know?
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• What resources do you have?
• What do other people – your spouse, peers, manager/broker, friends – see as your strengths?
• Are you a good listener?
• Are you a creative thinker or visionary?
• Do you volunteer or do charity events?
• Are you good at taking charge or delegating?
• Are you a great negotiator?

Now, look at your list and translate your strengths into “core beliefs.” Core beliefs are those beliefs that matter most to us. What are you most passionate about? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Think beyond money – yes, on some level, you probably go to work to get paid, but if money were no option, what would drive you to succeed? Is it personal growth? The desire to help people? A spiritual desire to spread love?

Your strengths and talents are your greatest assets. They are what make you unique and provide the greatest area for growing. And those who focus on their strengths are much happier people who enjoy their jobs far more.

Related Posts

• SWOT Analysis (Part 3) – Opportunities and Threats
• SWOT Analysis (Part 2) – Your Weaknesses
• 5 Step Marketing System for Real Estate Agents
• Position Yourself As the Real Estate Agent of Choice
• The Worst Four Words In Marketing