Jane Cranston
BS, MSW, CASAC
Free
Executive and Career Coach - Career Strategies for the Competitive Edge Expert
Jane Cranston Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Executive Coach, Business Coach, Career Counseling, The Job Search Expert, Workplace Issues
- Career Focus
- Executive Coach, Career Coach, Speaker and Author
- Affiliation
- ExecutiveCoachNY.com, ICF, EAPA, NASW, NAWBO
Welcome! I'm Jane Cranston an executive coach, career coach and "The Job Search Expert" to executives and professionals. I assist them in achieving the competitive edge - the next level in their career and life. This can mean a higher $alary or better position, successful job search or career change, greater ease with managing people or starting a new venture. Applying to the coaching process my many years of senior corporate management experience with major global brand name firms and what I have learned opening and running three businesses helps success-driven adults accelerate their progress and reach their goals and aspirations.
The three degrees I have earned and the training I received as a coach, business leader, educator and clinician assures coaching clients advanced, high quality, current skills sets and practices and information. The fact that I've "been around the block" a few times in my life brings a common sense, humor and practicality to every coaching connection. It's real and can be fun.
My personal life is full of family and friends who enrich my world and challenge my perceptions on a daily basis. My hobbies foreign travel, gardening, entertaining as well as a passion for helping poor inner-city children brings a world of style, beauty and compassion to everything and everyone I interact with.
I know the world and I especially understand the world of work and the workplace. Coaching is how I share my talents and gifts with others.
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
Articulate Your Workplace Brand
Over this past weekend, I had my annual “lunch on the lawn” party, big long tables in the garden laden with fresh food from the local farms and the ocean. It is an event people look forward to, so no one ever turns down the invitation. Note to readers — invite people to lunch on weekends. They are rarely booked, more relaxed, eat less, drink little, and stay for no more than three hours. It's also memorable because no one else does it.
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Aspects of Personal Branding in the Workplace
When working with my executive coaching clients, or presenting to a group of leaders, I am struck by how often people identify with what they do versus who they are and what they have to offer. In the extreme they spend more time selling their employers than themselves. Good for Company X, bad for aspiring worker. I created a list of areas where you can enhance your brand to promote yourself, or should. It's what I call Aspects of Personal Branding in the Workplace.
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Why am I Talking? Saying too Much at Work
I learned the W-A-I-T acronym in my graduate school training. I’ve always posted a small note on my wall, out of the client’s view, as a reminder. The letters stand for “Why Am I Talking?” Why do people talk too much in business situations? - They’re anxious. Maybe the gathering is about a difficult subject or has important leaders present. Most people don’t want to be the center of attention, yet they’re afraid they’ll be ignored or negated. So they talk and talk. This is the anxiety speaking and it often isn’t pretty or welcome.
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Networking Hurdles
I'm always surprised at how many of my executive career coaching clients are hesitant to contact former colleagues and supervisors when they need advice or information. I call these their “networking hurdles.” It seems particularly true when they’re looking for a job. Why is that? I gave it some thought and here’s what I came up with.
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Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats--SWOT
How do you predict the outcome of a behavior, project, or idea? A few days ago, an executive career-coaching client came to a session with an interesting PowerPoint presentation. It was a proposal to a potential employer. My client hoped the company would gain a better appreciation of his expertise and ability to transfer his skills to their industry sector as well as demonstrate a talent for addressing their specific challenges and opportunities. It was very effective. His outline was based on the SWOT template.
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Love My Work Hate My Job
“Love my work, hate my job” is the lament of too many people. Since layoffs appear to have reduced in numbers and the workplace seems to be settling into the new normal, people have the luxury of contemplating whether they're happy in the workplace.
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Are You a Renter or an Owner of Your Career?
Are you a renter or an owner? The question is generally asked about living space or maybe an office. Today, I ‘m asking about it with regards to your job and/or career.
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Taking a Part-Time Vacation
Are you envious of people who can go on vacation and not give work, home, or other obligations a thought? I use to be but then decided it really wasn’t the right mindset for me.
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Validation--Getting and Giving it at Work
I’ve been thinking about, and sharing with my executive coaching clients, the idea of validation. What I mean is the need of almost all of us to be told, in word or reaction, that who we are and what we contribute is relevant, valuable, and special. People on the job interview circuit generally get more rejections than offers and most of the nos come without explanation or regret. Are there many things harder than speaking with a series of people, believing you could do the job and perform well, only to hear nothing back?
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Must I Leave My Company to Advance My Career?
Too quickly, and too often the answer given to this question is “yes.” “Of course you have to move to get to the next level, make more money.” “Everyone knows home-growns are paid less.” True? Not necessarily, according to Monika Hamori, professor of Human Resource Management at the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. In her July-August 2010 article for the Harvard Business Review, she discusses the myths and facts she deciphered in her eight years researching the global financial industry’s employment records using the data of a large international executive search firm.
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The 3Cs of Communication: Clear, Concise, and Correct
Bob Sheppard, the announcer for the New York Yankees, for more than almost six decades, applied three simple principles to his extraordinary delivery. Surely his beautiful baritone made him highly listenable and memorable; however, it was his discipline that made him a lifetime member of the team and a much loved part of the game for spectators. To become a good communicator Bob Sheppard believed you had to abide by three simple, but important, rules—be clear, concise, and correct.
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Job Search is Like Dating
I’ve helped people advance their careers, switch jobs, and change employers most of my work life. It is over a year since my husband passed away and recently I’ve decided to test the dating waters. Within weeks of navigating the dating scene it occurred to me that looking for a date and searching for a job have more in common tha I could have ever imagine or thought could apply. When looking for a career or your soul mate, follow these simple suggestions.
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