A 22 year partnership with Jane has consistently animated how I have evaluated and advanced both my career and my life. Jane has helped me conceive and often reconceive and adjust my goals, and achieve sustaining results in my professional and personal life.
I met Jane in May of 2002 during a period of career transition in my late 20s. Jane helped me establish a baseline of where I was and a framework for what paths I might take going forward. Very quickly, I enjoyed and trusted Jane’s style – part critical thinking, part subtle feedback and advice — and our conversations became a slow but steady catalyst for changes in how I approached things. Jane nudged me to think and act outside of my comfort zone, question basic assumptions and take important steps — sometimes big, sometimes small — that would allow for continued progress.
Over the last two decades, my work and home life have changed dramatically — spending a large chunk of my mid-career at a large private equity firm; moving out of NYC, getting married and having two wonderful children now ages 10 and 6; becoming an entrepreneur in 2009 and co-founding a business.
Across all these years and phases of life, I continued to work with Jane on how to move forward; to advance my career, to find environments and peoples that were inspirational and aspirational, to balance my personal and professional lives, to work through the big obstacles that inevitably get in the way, and to continue on a journey to be happier, more fulfilled, more productive, and more comfortable in my own skin. This process continues and I think and hope will never stop.
Working on myself, working with others to become a bit better each day, and finding new goals and ways to move forward continues to be a big and exciting focus for me. Jane is an excellent listener, a great coach, and a dear friend and mentor. She provides perspectives, tools, and a key vote of confidence to go after that next big thing, or maybe that tiny little thing, that might be missing. Her own success in work and life allows her to inspire and instill confidence and be a critical ingredient in so much of what I have been able to do and what I hope to accomplish.
Benjamin Levin
Co-founder and CEO
My career trajectory would not have taken flight the way it has without her. Jane did more than just coach me. She supported me every step of the way and always mixed just the right amount of practical, straight-forward advice and guidance with thoughtfulness and compassion.
I recommend Jane Cranston as someone who will make your professional and personal lives richer as she guides you to your next successful career level and beyond.
Suzanne Froix
Award-Winning Executive Producer & Television Host
I was first introduced to Jane Cranston when I was in the process of leaving an organization to join another firm. We were introduced by a mutual friend and colleague who felt talking to Jane would help clarify my thinking and focus my perspective; would help me understand what I had achieved and how to leverage those achievements going forward. Little did I know this meeting would be the beginning of a 25+ year professional and personal friendship. Jane is that rare combination of astute business professional and empathetic and constructive executive coach. She works with clients to make them more aware and more effective, to point out ways to grow and move to a new level of performance. She offers a clarity of thinking, well thought out advice and creative exercises to help think through problems and issues. I do not, as a habit, refer organizations or colleagues to “outside services” and, if I do, it must be a service I trust completely. Jane is someone I would recommend to any organization or any individual at any time and in any situation. She is simply the best and a rarity in a crowded field.
Frederick Lamster
Managing Director at ZRG Partners, LLC
I have worked with Jane during several periods over more than 10 years and wholeheartedly recommend her as an executive coach. She is a consummate professional delivering guidance for any circumstance.
Jane has helped me improve as an executive, business owner, and job seeker working through various opportunities and crossroads in each. What I love most about her is that SHE KNOWS BUSINESS! Having worked as an executive and business owner, she brings a unique skill set of both business and counseling. She will be sure to send you off with action items after each session.
At the risk of sharing a sports comparison, Jane is the executive coaching equivalent of Bill Belichick, seeing the playing field and helping her clients maximize their potential and adjust to suit the circumstances.
My only regret is that I had not found Jane earlier in my career.
James “Jim” Decker
Retail and Event Merchandising/Business Development Executive
As my coach, Jane made a major impact on my life. My experience with her has provided incredible growth and self-awareness. Jane made me feel comfortable from the start—she is an incredible listener, asked the right questions, and put forth the time and effort to dive deeper into understanding me. She knows when to challenge and when to provide answers. I gained tremendous clarity and direction from her. Jane is caring, thoughtful, thorough, professional, challenging, understanding, and extremely intelligent. I am a huge fan!
James Kushner
President, Sales, Merchandising and Licensing at Hawke & Co, Outdoor United–Divisions of Zee Co. Apparel
An unparalleled investment in self! Jane Cranston, Executive Coach, was indispensable to me this past year. In 2019, having spent my career in one organization, I was just beginning to imagine the possibilities. Jane’s individualized approach and astute mind, lead me to a point of better self-understanding. Once there, I could articulate a plan to move forward, boldly. Jane expertly supports her clients into optimal careers and richer lives.
Elinor LaTouche
Executive Director
Epilepsy Foundation of Metropolitan New York
Jane Cranston has been the catalyst for getting to the next level in my career. After interviewing several other coaches, I chose to work with Jane. From our first meeting, I felt comfortable working with her. She took the time to really understand me as a person. She asks great questions and offers ample portions of food for thought.
Jane’s suggestions for my personal brand have been spot on. She gives practical, real-world advice. She’s also given me great negotiating feedback as I’ve evaluated multiple opportunities. Ultimately, Jane has helped me get results. Despite the global pandemic, I’m moving on to the next stage of my career and I’m truly excited about the future.
Christopher Smith
Knowledge Management/Technology/Innovation Crusader
Jane, I can’t believe it’s been 13 years since you coached me! My story is an awesome one and I just want to thank you for everything you did to help me get on the right track! Your coaching, inspiration and guidance helped me to make the single biggest, most impactful decision I think I’ve ever made. I think about you often and share my Jane Cranston story with all my clients and my coaches. I hope things are beautiful in your world and you are happy. I know you are still making a difference in people’s lives and I’m thankful I was one of those people! Thirteen years later and I have had some amazing coaches, but you will always stand out for me. And now I get to help other people the way you helped me! What a blessing! Keep it up! Thanks again!
Angi Bell
Personal and Professional Development Coach
My experience with Jane Cranston, as my executive coach, was game changing. Her in-depth process of getting to know me, as well as my team and other key stake holders was exemplary and her honest and caring approach allowed me to connect and trust her immediately. Together we built a well thought out action plan which incorporated key areas of strength and opportunities along with action steps and measures to ensure success. Because of her coaching and friendship I can honestly say that I’ve experienced a mindset shift, which has allowed me to maximize all business opportunities and demonstrate next level potential with greater intensity, competitiveness and executive presence. Thank you Jane!
Carlos J. Torres
EVP of Merchandising
Tommy Hilfiger
I heard a colleague (from whom I’d never expect to hear this) say about Jane that working with her had been life changing. My initial reaction was to say, “well, I don’t know about all that…. game-changing perhaps.” Nonetheless, on reflection, and after having gone through the whole process with her, I can say my life has definitely changed since I first started working with Jane. Just on the surface, I’ve gone from a Deputy Director to Director, and more importantly, below the surface, Jane has really helped shape my thinking. I’ve never had someone provide me with the level of insight and strategic advice as Jane did. It opened up excellent opportunities to me, which led to greater interaction and appreciation with senior representatives in my organization. I’m very grateful for Jane’s guidance, and in particular having someone that could help me interpret my landscape, and consider my best options, as well as to advocate for myself. The last year has been pivotal in my career, and working with Jane made a tremendous difference. I’m a very happy customer and big fan. Asking coaching questions is an art for her, and it was a pleasure to come to the realizations I did in our conversations. I’ll never forget the experience. So, yeah, Jane is life changing.
Joseph Bryson
Director
Quality & Development
International Federation of Accountants
How professionally gratifying it is to hear your boss describe all of the ways he’s so pleased with your remarkable transformation. And how incredibly professionally gratifying it is to hear him say that he’s been told the same about you from committee members and members of the executive management team. This is but one of the results I received from my coaching experience with Jane.
I entered into the coaching sessions with skepticism. I couldn’t fathom how working with a coach could yield remarkable results – it sounded too good to be true. But Jane has an uncanny ability to help you learn things about yourself, guiding you toward new ways of thinking and approaches that result in a benefit to both yourself and the wide span of those you work with. She is insightful, experienced, and a complete joy to work with.
Working with Jane has improved my life on a personal level as well, resulting in more robust, enhanced relationships. I can honestly say my coaching experience was truly transformational and life changing. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the experience of working with Jane and I have the utmost respect for her as a professional and an individual.
Meg Waterhouse
Head of Finance at IFAC
Transformative coaching! I had the pleasure and great benefit of Jane’s coaching over the last 18 months, as did two of my direct reports. Simply said, she delivered on precisely what I was hoping — focused and direct advice; reflective and, when needed, challenging discussions; action and follow-up oriented approach; able to bring to bear essential connectivity and context; flexibility, nimbleness and situational awareness; able to discuss the big-picture as well as being a key sounding board on emerging concerns. But the key is “results” — so, did I see them? Absolutely, especially for my two reports. Jane’s coaching has helped open a new world. Highly recommended!
James Gunn
Managing Director, Professional Standards
IAASB IESBA IAESB IPSASB
In my experience, Jane Cranston holds a unique ability to quickly asses a person’s executive and personal development to identify their strongest talents and champion their mental resilience to achieve their goals.
I met with Jane in September 2013 at the beginning of a professional job search after a brief hiatus as a stay at home parent. Within a short period, she was able to help strategize and build an effective job search from establishing career targets and networking skills through developing my “signature” resume, cover letter, elevator pitch, and interview skills. Within the next few months, I used her advice to navigate a challenging job market to attain multiple meaningful job offers across several industries and ultimately led me to an increase in financial and career success. I have and will continue to strongly recommend Jane to anyone looking for a results-oriented coach with a track record of success.
Lara Peterson
Sr. Manager, Loyalty and Rewards
Global Corporate Payments
American Express
Jane is one of the most valuable assets in my career toolkit. I have worked with her at all stages of my 10+ year career – finding my first job, navigating the intricacies of large corporations to transitioning industries and working at a start-up. Jane provides actionable guidance by helping you identify and prioritize your goals and the steps to achieve those goals, and most importantly how to maneuver road blocks that arise throughout the process. I am now a more effective leader, listener, and communicator because of our partnership.
Marta
Consumer Insight and Brand Strategist Expert
Jane and I have a great coaching relationship. She keeps me focused on my career development, making sure we constantly revisit my goals and objectives. Jane makes herself available to me. It is great to know I can pick up the phone and use her as a sounding board; she also checks in with me when she knows I am going to have a stressful event at work. I feel there was a direct link between the coaching I received this year and my increase in compensation and performance rating. I would highly recommend Jane as an executive coach and look forward to working with her this year.
VP, Human Resources
Major Global Financial Institution
Jane Cranston was a tremendous resource in helping me craft my resume (every word used, placement and punctuation), so it was the strongest and most visually-pleasing representation of my experience and skillset. She was both highly professional and personable. She was helpful and encouraged me. She also was candid in telling me how to develop weaker areas where I needed to improve my branding and social media skills. I strongly recommend Jane and have to other colleagues and friends in need of her coaching skills
Cynthia Chandler
PwC Director
Jane is a collaborative and constructive Executive Coach. Considering my own enigmatic personality and background, Jane was able to astutely identify my professional opportunity areas and provide meaningful ways for improvement. Being highly intuitive, Jane asked the right questions and synthesized situations with a diagnostic clarity able to overcome my woefully poor elaborations. Further, Jane has the executive experience to go beyond simple feedback and present her client with tangible, real-world tools to improve oneself. I walked out of my program with a list of tenets, which I daily strive to achieve. I look to Jane as a trusted advisor and friend, and I cannot recommend her highly enough.
Non-Profit CFO
16 Years Professional Experience
Why should you work with Jane Cranston? I have 3 reasons: for yourself, for yourself, for yourself.
In writing this endorsement I looked back to see how Jane and I connected, how our relationship developed, and why I continue to find her valuable. I am a 47 year old male executive in advertising sales for a broadcast company. When Jane and I met, I was employed by a different company. I had just relocated to the New York area to develop a new position within the company. We wanted to expand traditional revenue streams and to mine new opportunities from the Internet and wireless worlds. I was to find the new opportunities, mentor coworkers, and a vendor sales team to grow that business. I realized quickly I needed to bounce ideas, strategies, and challenges off an objective listener to move forward and balance the strategic issues of future growth with the need for revenue now.
I had read about coaching in the business press. At a corporate meeting I attended at the same time as my relocation, I learned that my company had an HR benefit that assisted in finding potential coaches. I interviewed a number of possibilities on the phone. Jane and I clicked. Jane answered functional questions easily. We discussed how to benchmark progress in the relationship. She also willingly agreed to meet for a no obligation one on one. I don’t recall what we exchanged then but I decided to make the personal investment in myself. I have grown by working with her.
Our sessions began with the business challenges I faced. Discussion topics included long and short-term career goals, strategies to get there and why they are important to me. Jane challenged me to evaluate what I needed to do, how to efficiently and effectively complete the task, and why I would (or not) get satisfaction from achieving those goals. I have not heard Jane tell me what to do; I have a partner in a discernment process.
The relationship has evolved as the months rolled by. We have discussed life-balance issues. As a baby boomer, I am squeezed by parents getting older and children needing my care and resources. I have a wife who is supportive and loving to share these realities. Additionally, I have been able to sort things in meeting with Jane during trying times that have had positive outcomes in work and at home. Her ability to listen and thoughtfully probe allows me to see where beauty is in the personal trials and their implications on my business life.
I recommend Jane Cranston because she is professional, experienced, intelligent, insightful, honest, direct, caring, and thoughtful. You would be hard pressed to find a better investment in yourself or your career.
Jim Reilly
Senior Account Director, Univision Communications
I value Jane’s expertise in working with people whose jobs are in highly creative environments.
I’ve worked with Jane for about three years. I value her coaching expertise in working with people whose jobs are in highly creative environments. Personally, I find her advice valuable on how to deal with the periodic and inevitable work overloads (how to feel good and know you are making progress even when the pile on your desk keeps growing).
Dr. Craig Partridge
Chief Scientist and Vice President, BBN Technologies
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jane for the past months. In this short time we’ve worked together, I have made significant improvements in my career, position, and salary. Jane has been invaluable in helping me navigate the corporate landscape. Because of her expertise and direction, I’ve been able to position myself as a valuable asset to my company. I am now seen as a leader in my field and am currently vying for an executive position, which I would have never accomplished so quickly without Jane. I know this is going to be a long lasting working relationship.”
Cindy Gil
Digital Strategist, VH1
I was starting a new position in a new organization and felt that having a coach to help mentor me through the process would be a critical key to success.
Jane has been instrumental in providing valuable guidance to help me “build my brand.”
I would recommend executive coaching to anyone going through a career change.
L.W.
Executive at a Major Provider of Dialysis Care
Life is an endless series of opportunities and the challenge is to identify central issues and hidden blocks or barriers oftentimes, or perhaps most often, camouflaged by our history to discover breakthroughs to desired outcomes. Jane Cranston is a guru-master-generator, someone who with the talons of an eagle and the eye of the all-knowing, intersects and disconnects patterns of unworkability to deliver outcomes and achievements. She consistently demonstrates a penetrating persistence to discover by uncovering hidden pieces in the puzzle that bring a better picture reality of what is so. She, as if by magic, understands human behavior with a guru’s inspiration to cause a way of navigating blocks, barriers, or thwarted intentions.
Her coaching is a breakthrough of the varied elements that must be unconcealed in the maze of what at times seem extraneous and unrelated issues in the larger scheme of operating practices. I am in wonderment about the “exactly how” she can access what is so. In the course of using Jane’s Executive Coaching, I completed my Ph.D., wrote two books, one on the Space of Miracles and a second, a corresponding workbook. During another period of transition I moved from retirement back into a part-time position with the United States Coast Guard as an Employee Assistance Program Counselor and as an on staff Adjunct Professor at CUNY. In another use of her services I was blocked in bringing outreach community support services at my Space of Miracles in upstate New York, and through her coaching expertise was able to distinguish past historical blocks imbedded in racism, which cleared the way to generate outreach and contribution.
Jane remains on her coaching assignment out of session by unexpectedly providing e-mail, articles, referrals, and always a sense of her relentless commitment to be constant and faithful beyond the weekly session allotment. This continuing creative process contributed a sense of gratitude and synergy that I was not isolated but working within a partnership of transformation. There is a genius, boldness, and the removal of barriers in working in her coaching arena. In the past I had dreams of what should be and a myriad of challenges and hidden agendas. Now the principal life goals are building blocks toward a future of limitless possibilities. Using coaching sequentially, as needed, was at times one breakthrough session and always the time to accomplish my designated outcome was spontaneously quick, immediate, and nurturing. I have evolved into someone who realizes not only my potential but that I am an extraordinary human being. Previously, my sense of my contribution and how I appeared in the world crimped, smaller, and in wonderment of how I would achieve what at times seemed to be the impossible, improbable, and out of reach.
Rev. George Tani, Ph.D., MBA, LCSW