SWOT analysis and talent

One of the most interesting parts of my MBA course all those years ago was SWOT analysis. For those who haven’t encountered it, SWOT analysis involves analyzing a business placement in the market place as a snapshot of its strengths, its weaknesses , the opportunities available and the threats facing it. Why it made such a great impression on me was not merely its application to market analysis but much more its flexibility as a tool for analyzing any learning (or even life) situation. I’ve used it often to great effect but one question still hangs over me. To what extent should one play to one strengths and develop them and to what extent should one try to ameliorate the weaknesses? When we deal with the gifted we react differently to the way we deal with children with learning difficulties. Is it right to foster the strengths of the very able but to try to alleviate the weaknesses of the less able? Does the way you are taught depend merely on your place on the ability ladder and which abilities are we looking at in that situation? Are they merely academic or are we considering the whole range of intelligences? Maybe I need to re-examine Gardner’s views on intelligence and see how they could be ’schooled’ more skillfully.