What makes a good leader? Experience? Vision? Knowledge? These traits are all traditionally associated with effective managers. But nowadays, there’s another factor that is slowly gaining reputation in the workplace: Emotional Intelligence.

It’s been a big buzzword recently, but what does it actually mean? And how can we apply it to our organizations? Leadership among peers requires a certain emotional quotient. Being able to discriminate between employee’s feelings and label them appropriately is something that truly separates the mindset of a midlevel manager from that of a CEO.

Time and time again, research has shown that high EQ can work wonders in the workplace in virtually any field. A recent study found that employees who had managers with high EQ were four times less likely to leave their company and that more than 70% of their perception of the company culture resulted from these manager’s emotional intelligence levels.

CEOs and politicians have harnessed EQ to achieve incredible results in their respective careers. With the infographic below, created by Norwich University’s Online Master of Science in Leadership program, you will discover the benefits and importance of Emotional Intelligence.

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The Product Management Perspective: As a product manager you practice leadership among your peers every day. You rely on colleagues from other teams for the success of your products. Learning about and improving your emotional intelligence will give you a shot in the arm to work more effectively with your teams.