DeAnna Murphy and Strengths Strategy, Inc.

I get tongue-tied (or finger-cramped) as I think about writing this post. My visit with DeAnna Murphy of Strengths Strategy Inc. has been a long time coming, and carries a lot of promise with it. It's not overly dramatic to say that DeAnna has changed my life.

I've been interested in the Strengths paradigm for more than a year. My employer, Karri Bruntz, introduced the concept to a group of Edward Jones financial advisors a year ago last February, and I helped gather all of the materials and set up the seminar for the project. We had an outside speaker come from the Marcus Buckingham group, and I was captivated! As soon as she began her presentation, I thought "THAT'S what I want to do!"

The Strengths idea was introduced by Tom Rath in his book StrengthsFinder 2.0. The Strengths test is administered through the Gallup organization (as in Gallup Poll), and is a series of questions that quickly identifies an individual's 34 strengths in order of their dominance. While some people I have known have been surprised by what is listed as their top strengths, I have yet to see a person who has taken the test who ultimately decided that the results were incorrect.

My top strengths are Connectedness (a feeling that nothing is coincidental, that we are all "related," that I am connected to God, others, nature, animals, etc., and that my primary motivation in life is for connection), Individualization (delighting in the uniqueness of each individual, not "categorizing" people into groups "men are. . .", seeing the individual strengths in others, being able to put teams together based upon what I see and understand as the unique qualities of others), Strategic (the ability to see things from a 30,000 foot perspective, and see the various methods by which to reach a goal and weigh them out carefully), Learner (the desire for constant learning and growth), Intellection (The need for focused mental activity; for example, trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person’s feelings), Achiever (self-explanatory), Responsibility (ditto).

Understanding an individual's strengths helps us "get" what motivates them and makes them tick, and it also takes the personal pinch out of disagreements. We are all different, and understanding someone else's strengths helps us to appreciate why we may have times we don't see eye to eye. The point is, we need all of the various strengths to be truly effective as families or businesses.

DeAnna Murphy is one of twelve internationally-approved Strengths coaches by the Gallup organization. DeAnna, who is LDS, started Strengths Strategy, Inc. to introduce a more approachable way by which to understand and use the strengths in our lives and in our relationships. DeAnna coaches all over the world, including Syria, Dubai, and Africa.

My friend, Mary Babcock, "introduced" DeAnna and I via email when she read my blog post about starting a Strengths Group here in Redmond. Mary and DeAnna had served together in the Church in North Dakota, and Mary felt we would be great friends. She was right! Although I "met" DeAnna almost a year ago via email and phone conversations, it took a year to arrange to meet her in person. I used DeAnna's materials in a follow-up seminar this year on the Strengths for the same group of financial advisors who had taken the seminar last year. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to teach again, and I felt I stepped back into "myself" for the first time in quite a few years. We held the seminar in February, and I asked at that time for a group who might be interested in taking DeAnna's personalized training if I could arrange it (it is fairly pricey).

It was a lot of work, but I managed to commit about 38 people to take DeAnna's "Discovery" class. The more I worked with DeAnna and the whole Strengths paradigm, the more eager I became to be a part of the movement. I was very upfront with DeAnna that I wanted to work with her organization in some way, and eventually travel the world as a Strengths coach. Considering that all of the people who work for her are degreed in Psychology, my wishes have been bold, to say the least. In just a few conversations with DeAnna, I realized that her work was nothing short of a "mission" - something I've been craving. In essence, she is teaching gospel-centered truths, and in an environment where they are sorely needed. This training strengthens an individual's view of themselves, as well as their relationships with others - and all is based on hard-core, measurable data.

Although DeAnna usually stays in hotels when she goes to coach, I asked her to stay with me during her week in Seattle, and she consented. What a blessing that was to me! We stayed up very late every evening sharing dreams and insights, and the more we talked, the more connected we became. I've put everything I've got "on the line" to hook up with DeAnna and her group, and have expressed how deep my desire is to be a part of her organization. DeAnna has been warm and encouraging, and we have presented a plan to Edward Jones for them to pay for my certification as a coach through DeAnna's organization, but pay that back by my volunteering 100 hours of coaching to Edward Jones branch teams. The offer is being mulled over by the executives at the Home Office in St. Louis, and the verdict is yet to come. While I hope and pray that this may truly come to pass, I feel cautious about pinning my expectations and hopes too deeply on the outcome.

I don't know how things are going to turn out, but a door of possibility has been opened in my mind. I am fortunate in that DeAnna will continue to personally coach me on my path, and I pray that it will become clear to both of us how I can be involved in her organization, and hopefully, on a world-wide scale. I haven't voiced my dream for many years of "helping to bring peace to the Mid East," but meeting DeAnna and knowing that her organization is there, helps to bring that long-held dream back to the surface. Who knows what may come?

Something that meeting DeAnna has done is to help start me dreaming again. I'm making a commitment to get back to writing my books, and to believe that almost anything is possible.