How do you react under pressure? The answer will vary depending on who you are, but the word “stress” triggers familiar imagery for all of us—challenging personalities, high emotions, and rushed interactions. In thinking about your own contribution to the chaos, do you feed into the frenzy? If the answer is no, and you’ve developed the ability to find productive ways to respond to difficult situations, you just might have one of the most important skills needed to succeed in customer service and administrative roles: the ability to manage stress.

Because administrative professionals are the point of contact for customers, clients, and/or the professionals they are responsible for supporting, stress (both internal and external) can be prevalent in their average work day. Since many administrative professionals are required to be attentive to a multitude of pressing and constantly changing responsibilities, while functioning as an intermediary between the people they are support and any third parties, stress management skills can take you far in your career.

Though technical skills are necessary attributes to function well within office support settings, an individual who also has a cool-headed disposition by nature has a leg up on fellow job seekers who don’t. Why? Just as there is a technical dimension to an administrative assistant’s role, there is a human dimension equally as important. Duties such as scheduling meetings and booking travel accommodations also require using soft skills such as strong organization skills and great communication skills. Having a strong set of soft skills gives you a reliable network of abilities to use when working under pressure.

In fact, this trait is so desirable that studies show that 90 percent of top performers in the workplace are adept at managing their emotions under stress. Therefore, it’s important to display these qualities in any way you can before and after landing a position to make sure employers know they can turn towards you in times of stress and trust you will get the job done well.

As a result, before going into a job interview or any professional environment in which you seek to showcase your skills, prepare one or two real experiences you’ve had that communicate your stress management abilities. It could make the difference in whether you or your competition gets the job, and employers know that employees who come onboard with a demonstrated ability to deal with challenges and unforeseen road blocks will have other transferable skills such as strong time management skills, the ability to multi-task, and the ability to mitigate other people’s anxiety.

For great office support professionals, stress management is just one part of a complex set of qualities known as emotional intelligence. According to TalentSmart, individuals who have a large capacity for emotional intelligence are capable of not only handling their own emotions and behavior to create a positive outcome, but can also identify the emotions of someone they are interacting with. Therefore, they can use relationship management skills to manage those interactions in a constructive way—which is one of the most valuable tools in an office support setting.