Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to understand and manage one's own emotions and recognize emotions in others in order to guide thinking and behavior. It was first proposed in 1985 and later popularized by Daniel Goleman, who argued EI is the largest predictor of success in the workplace. Tests of emotional intelligence (EQ) evaluate soft skills like self-awareness and empathy, in contrast to IQ tests which measure hard skills like math ability.