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Why do people choose to develop emotional intelligence and why do they turn to Six Seconds for their path? In “Voices from Six Seconds Network,” we introduce you to people in the network who share their experiences, personal journeys, and how they embrace EQ in different areas of their daily lives.

Voices from the Network: Anke Breternitz

by Maddalena Campitelli

“I am the owner of my life and this is an amazing feeling.” – Anke Breternitz

There’s power in purpose — when clients connect to purpose, it’s a lever for change. As coaches, when we can see and feel purpose, it fuels us to go beyond what we could do before.

Connecting with purpose fuels Anke. Helping others clarify purpose deeply aligns with her Noble Goal of inspiring people to connect and collaborate to reach their full potential. She explains “using EQ we are helping people to connect with themselves, which is EQ’s biggest power: the change you can bring in this world.”

We sat down with Anke Breternitz to talk about her experience helping people find their life purpose. Sitting in front of a gallery of Noble Goals as her backdrop during her interview, Anke shared her deep passion for working with Noble Goals. At Six Seconds, a Noble Goal is “the spark that gets you out of bed every morning,” something that continuously inspires you and will live beyond you. It is the driver that allows you to “connect your daily choices with your overarching sense of purpose.” <Learn more about Pursue Noble Goals in the Six Seconds Model of EQ>

Anke’s clients work through a process of finding a Noble Goal by starting with a sentence and then creating a picture which represents their vision to anchor the meaning for them (more about her process below). When Anke looks at her wall of Noble Goals, she can see these symbols of her clients and their stories, the families and communities around them, reminding her the impact that finding their purpose has on those people’s lives. “When I look at those starting points I remember my clients and I feel really proud because I inspired them a bit with the help of this Noble Goal exercise which is really amazing. This is my favorite tool, because there you can really see people take their life in their own hands again, and they go for it. There is so much power and motivation there.”

She created the wall to measure and make visible her work as a coach and her clients’ improvements. Having so many Noble Goals on display helps Anke remind herself of the impact she contributed to her own Noble Goal and inspires others to deepen their commitment. “I’m really a wholehearted and passionate coach. Seeing what impact I can make with coaching on my clients is amazing.”

Anke has over 28 years experience in the international corporate environment. She was working in a company as a recruiter, communications manager and trainer for managers and employees in HR related topics. What she loved about it was dealing with people, the flexibility and the high recognition and appreciation she was given within the company, but she felt something was missing. Having always been working with people is the reason for being a coach now; coaching is something that truly comes from her heart. She says: “for me it’s a privilege to be able to help people. It’s amazing and really deep for me.” During the time working for the company she found out that most of people’s struggles were about communication style and the competencies of Emotional Intelligence. After years of coaching experience in her country (Germany) she realized that most Germans are not so used to expressing their emotions – when asked how they feel, they simply answer “good” or “bad” with no shades in between. This insight led her to bring the message “feel your emotions” in her country, to teach that it is possible to feel multiple emotions at the same time, to allow people to have a better contact and understanding with each other, and to feel empathy for other people by bringing EQ language in their daily lives.

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Meet Anke Breternitz website and LinkedIn →

Professional achievements: International Personal & Business Coach, Emotional Intelligence Coach working with Individuals and Professionals in Business, topics: career planning, change, expand potential

Favorite Six Seconds Learning Philosophy: “No Way is The Way”
Learn about Six Seconds Learning Philosophy →

Noble Goal: “Inspire people to connect and collaborate to reach their full potential”
Learn about Six Seconds Noble Goals →

Her “Don’t Miss This” Six Seconds tools & courses:
Assessments: Brain Brief Profile (BBP) and Brain Talent Profile (BTP)
Tools: VET (Validate, Explore, Transform)
Join us for an info session on VET tool certification and learn the process for navigating emotions 

Anke became a professional coach both for clients working on personal development (helping people looking for a career change, or seeking help finding themselves, or those feeling stuck) and businesses goals (focusing on leadership and teams). She says that in all these cases it is always important to have good tools which are logical and understandable to really help people to see in new ways because the center of coaching is reflecting. She was looking for a valid institute where to learn techniques on how to support people and she found Six Seconds! In the German market she couldn’t find something that spoke to her heart, but after her first training with Six Seconds, she was so inspired and enthusiastic that from there she went on and completed the full EQ coaching certification.

Working with people coming from different ages, backgrounds and professional spheres, Anke noticed that there are two groups of people who struggle the most finding their Noble Goal: the young adults embarking a new chapter of life and dealing with transitions, and people over fifty, who say they want to start doing something meaningful in their life, because doing the same things everyday for years doesn’t make any sense to them anymore. Anke suggests that the uncertainty of today is pushing people to feel urgency to take part in making the world better. She thinks we are poised to have a great impact on trust and empathy in the world, but there’s so much more we could do. Anke shares the surprise her clients feel by the power and consequence of connecting to emotions in their lives – emotions are essential data to better understand oneself and to find one’s purpose.

Anke explained the process through which she guides people in order to help them find their Noble Goal and how she includes EQ assessments and tools into it. First, together with the client they agree upon an objective to achieve and a journey (with specific steps and topics and they see as they go what to add as new insights come in). Finding the Noble Goal is something which she puts at the very beginning as she starts making the client reflect on what are their core values, and they cocreate a balance scale in terms of what takes energy and what gives energy to the person.

Building on this, over several coaching sessions, Anke and client reflect on the current state of the world, and where the client feels pulled toward making a difference. Building on values and what gives them energy, Anke explains Six Seconds definition and five criteria of a Noble Goal. The client begins to craft a vision. Anke says that in this process, they are also building trust in themselves and seeing where to build more trust in the future. She shared that once the client has come up with their first version of the Noble Goal you can already tell by their face and body language their satisfaction and ease, as they find themselves with a compass, a polar star giving them a direction to follow, and they can do some step everyday towards that goal.

At the end of this brainstorming process which takes multiple sessions, the client has a sentence representing the Noble Goal. As a final step, Anke has the client look for a picture to symbolize their Noble Goal. Anke puts the words and picture together and sends that to the clients – and she puts it on her own wall to remind her of her purpose as a coach. Many clients add their picture as screen cover on their phones so they can be reminded of their Noble Goals every day.

Anke’s work has become more than supporting clients. She connected with her own Noble Goal to inspire people to connect and collaborate to reach their full potential. The same way she now helps others, Six Seconds helped her transform her life. Anke has always been very energetic and passionate about what she has been doing over the years. She shared “I’m always so excited about what I’m doing because I wake up every day looking forward to meeting my clients, which is something very beautiful to think about in the morning already.” While she loved her old job as well and she’s thankful for it, she realized that it was not something she was truly doing for herself, and that was what made her decide to quit and become an EQ coach. Anke says: “The wall of Noble Goals for me is a constant reminder that I am exactly where I want to be. I can feel that now I am deciding, I am the owner of my life and this is an amazing feeling”.

Thank you Anke for sharing your EQ journey with us! 

If you would like to share your story and be featured in future newsletters please email [email protected] 

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​​​​Want more resources about about Purpose, Noble Goals and its process?

How to Be a Great Leader: Harnessing the Power of Noble Goals

Illuminate: Crafting Your Noble Goal

A Look That Spoke A Thousand Words: A tribute to a woman so inspirational that she’s leaving people speechless years after her passing

How to Increase Motivation by Finding Life Purpose

Why Telling Your Coaching Clients to “Find Your Purpose” is Bad Advice. Purpose is made, not found: 3 practical tips to grow purpose with EQ