Highpoint Training & CoachingHighpoint Training & Coaching

Professional Coaching empowers men and women who have decided to pursue an unprecedented future to reach their maximum personal and professional potential through a creative, collaborative partnership.

Professional and Business Coaching

I provide professionals and business leaders with coaching that empowers them to get out of their own way, reclaim their best selves, and rise to their next level of effectiveness and success. All of my clients are smart, strong, and successful women and men. But, they are at point in their journey in which the stakes are high. They realize that opportunities pass. They are committed to making the best possible decisions in pursuit of the greatest possible outcomes. So, engaging with a coach makes sense.

Business Operating Systems

I provide close, professional support for implementing popular management systems that help move small and mid-size businesses and non-profits from personality-centered enterprises to systems-based organizations. To be clear, I am not an Implementer, which gives me the freedom to build on standard implementation processes, provide on-site observation, participate with teams in process, and provide individual coaching for leaders and managers.

Harrison Assessments

Harrison is not a personality test; rather, it provides an assessment of behavioral tendencies and preferences. The data provided can be used for employee selection, engagement, development, retention, succession, and team alignment through the entire employment life cycle. In individual coaching applications, Harrison provides uncommon insights into our behavioral strengths, the trajectory of our personal and professional development, and compelling insights into how strengths, out of balance, may be limiting our effectiveness or success at work.

“To get to the next level of greatness depends on the quality of the culture, which depends on the quality of the relationships, which depends on the quality of the conversations. Everything happens through conversations.”
– Judith E. Glaser

A Rambo in a World of Consulting Armies

I sometimes describe myself—tongue in cheek—as “A Rambo in a World of Consulting Armies.” I am HIGHPOINT Training and Coaching! Just me. If you’re looking for a distinctive approach or a custom solution rather than a standard coaching or training program, I can add value. I offer high flexibility and as well as deep and lasting impact. You will have my focused attention and passionate engagement in the results you are seeking. Even the world-class behavioral assessment I use—Harrison—is a distinctive, boutique assessement that can provide you with uncommon clarity around your opportunities for growth and transformation.  I’m here to help you fight for the future you dream of living.

My Speciality—Transitions and Transformation

Personal and professional TRANSITIONS are daunting yet full of inspiring opportunity. Some of my clients have been forced into a transition; others are purposefully initiating a transition. Some may be changing jobs or companies or pursuing a new career altogether. Others may be seeking to overcome self-limiting behaviors that have compromised their career or undermined their relationships. After a season of feeling that they have been spread too thin or taken in too many directions, some clients have decided to take time to realign their lives and leadership with their deepest sense of vision, purpose, core values, and even calling. Whatever transition you may be facing or pursuing, transitions confront us al with high stakes opportunities and decisions, So, it makes sense to engage with a professional coach who can provide an outside perspective, a safe and skilled partner in deep conversation, tools that can help us gain traction, and meaningful accountability for the results that we say that we want to achieve. 

 TRANSITIONS are frequently doorways to TRANSFORMATION—that is, reinventing the way we do life, forging new skills, reclaiming our dreams, and going to a next level. How does this work? Together we’ll explore your part in the results you have achieved or are struggling to achieve. We will explore what can be learned from the people around you, whether co-workers or even family members. We will look at your behavioral strengths, tendencies, and even behavioral imbalances through the various lenses provided by Harrison reports. Then, we’ll dig deeper into the emotions and (deeper still) into the core beliefs that energize your emotions and behaviors. Your beliefs are like the rudder of your ship. If your beliefs cannot be challenged or changed, your course cannot be corrected. Your future will include much of your past. But if you’re willing to take responsibility for self-limiting beliefs and replace them with new perspectives and commitments, you can develop new behaviors that will set you sailing for destinations that have been over a distant horizon until now. 

Advocating for Women

Half of my individual and corporate clients are women—professionals who excel on a playing field that, even in this 21st Century, is not level. Social studies and marketplace surveys continue to pile up compelling evidence that women, given gender distinctions, often bring significant competencies to corporate leadership that add to the financial performance of the organizations they lead. Nevertheless, professional women are frequently led to believe that they must learn to think and to act like their male counterparts in order to rise to positions of corporate influence. This belief is counterproductive for women and the men who work alongside them. I look forward to the day when companies promote and reward women for their high social intelligence, thinking versatility, and creative empathy…along with exceptional professional skill. I am fully persuaded that men do their best work in full partnership with women. I am honored, as a man, to advocate for women who find value in the validation and affirmation of a male perspective and voice.

Professional and Personal Challenges

 We are human. All of us. Our professional careers are deeply impacted by our personal lives—often positively, sometimes negatively. For this reason, professional coaching almost always includes the exploration of personal pressures and opportunities as well as relational strains and desires. This isn’t a weakness; its a reality.  A breakthrough on the personal level can release new energy and even fresh vision at work. A breakthrough at the career level can open  doors to personal and relational renewal. All this is to say that professional and business coaching often turns out to be whole-life coaching, empowering you to step up to new levels of effectiveness and fulfillment across the whole spectrum of your life—from health and self-care, to marriage and family, to career and calling. 

TOOLS TO TAKE HOLD OF THE FUTURE

Customizable Solutions for Accelerated, Measurable, Sustainable Results

Executive Coaching

I may invite you to engage in several professional and personal assessments that heighten self-awareness and provide meaningful data about your starting point. This data will enable us to measure your progress and my effectiveness, providing us both with accountability.

We’ll begin by giving attention to the personal behavioral changes you identify as essential to your personal development. Then we’ll implement specific catalytic leadership processes and proven business solutions (toolkits) in the areas you are choosing to challenge and overcome. Finally, as you may request, I will provide a leadership curriculum that supports your personal and professional journey.

Breakthroughs in an individual leader or manager’s self-awareness, authenticity, and ability to execute often reveal opportunities to seek similar gains through small group coaching with men and women who are part of a team or network.

Team Building

You may wish to start by introducing your team to a new season of organizational development by hosting a stand-alone, one to two hour training event. We can co-create an event that focuses on a wide variety of strategic leadership or business skills.

Our next step will be to plan and calendar team assessments and training sessions that launch the journey toward the outcomes you have decided to target. Many organizations start with a top level team or one department in order to generate noticeable results and build momentum for increased health and productivity across the organization.

We can work together to host an offsite, human-centered experience that engages your team in breakthrough discoveries, creative and insightful conversations, and building new levels of trust, respect, and appreciation. We’ll step into the planning process by exploring your team’s history, trajectory, and goals.

Business Coaching Best Grand Rapids, Michigan

Harrison Assessments™ Anchor Your Starting Place for a Season of Personal or Team Transformation

Whether you need reliable data for hiring, to provide meaningful accountability for management, or to establish an entire team’s starting place, assessments can lift entire teams to new levels of self-awareness and authenticity, empowering you to get accelerated, measurable, sustainable results. Why wait?

Leadership Impact Surveys™ identify Strengths and Growth Opportunities from the perspective of direct reports.

This leadership assessment tool builds on Harrison distinctives and gives you advantages in hiring and retaining great talent by measuring two critical organizational performance areas. The Leadership Impact Survey assesses how well leaders and managers are performing and how their direct reports experience the working environment.

Jim Thomsen


President, Seaborne Defense, LLC

Ray is one of the most gifted persons that I know in any profession – and I have worked with many senior business and government leaders in the US and abroad. He is one of those rare...

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I'M EAGER TO HEAR YOUR STORY AND TO JOIN YOU IN WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER!

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  • ray@highpointjourney.com




    Best Business Coach Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Ray Befus

    Executive Coach

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