Last week, I attended a leadership summit and one of the lessons taught at the event was on emotional intelligence. What the message boiled down to was this: everyone’s heard about the importance of IQ or a person’s specific level of intelligence, but many people overlook the significance of EQ or emotional intelligence. Oftentimes, society places emphasis on IQ, but I would argue that EQ is in fact more relevant because it affects more aspects of a person’s life.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions positively as well as understand and influence the emotions of others. Unlike intellectual ability which is inherent, emotional intelligence is acquired and built up through experiences. It’s an important relationship skill that allows people to “communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.” Once a person fully comprehends their own emotions and how to control them, they can expertly convey how they feel and perceive how others feel. This makes personal and workplace relationships stronger.

People with emotional intelligence have an awareness of themselves and how their emotions affect their behavior. As a result, they often are able to manage stress better. This is important because uncontrolled emotions invariably lead to uncontrolled stress. The uncontrolled stress can then lead to higher blood pressure, an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, and can contribute to infertility, among other physical problems. Major stress and uncontrolled emotions can also affect a person’s mental health by making them more susceptible to depression or anxiety. So by just understanding and managing their emotions, a person could potentially avoid many major physical and mental health issues. Who knew?

Simply put, emotions can drive our behavior, actions, and attitudes. They can affect our physical and mental health if we let them. They impact our relationships. Therefore, a person who has complete mastery over their emotions has control over their social reactions and more control over their internal reactions. People with strong EQ are leaders and motivators. They can effectively put their feelings aside completely in order to assess a situation logically or focus the totality of their energy onto a singular task. This is why “many companies now view emotional intelligence as being as important as technical ability and use EQ testing before hiring.”