Tips, research, and product updates from the SpeechPlus team.
A new Institute for Public Relations report finds that feeling emotionally distant from coworkers predicts disengagement more strongly than burnout, salary, or job security. Here's how the way you talk to your team can close that gap.
A recruiter's TikTok about Gen Z candidates carrying iced coffee into interviews went viral this week and split the internet along generational lines. Here's the professionalism signal that debate is drowning out, and how to control it instead.
Caroline Webb's new book Leadership Intelligence, out this month, explains why stress shuts down clear thinking mid-interview or mid-negotiation, and what actually prevents it isn't confidence. Here's how to build that into your prep.
A new PNAS study of over 11,000 people finds HR professionals penalize identical negotiation requests differently depending on the requester's social class. Here's how to ask in a way that closes that gap.
NACE's newest employer survey ranks communication and professionalism as the skills new hires struggle with most, even though employers call them the most important. Here's what "unprofessional" actually means and how to close the gap before your next interview.
A new book from mattering researcher Zach Mercurio argues that making other people feel noticed and needed is the most overlooked leadership skill. Here's how to turn that into an interview and sales advantage.
Bullhorn's new 2026 GRID Talent Trends Report found 92% of candidates rated their AI voice interview as good as or better than a human one, even as other job seekers are calling AI interviews 'jarring' and blacklisting companies over them. Here's what separates the two groups.
CNBC reported this week that career coaches are split on whether the 'September surge' in hiring will hold past October. Either way, a compressed hiring window means less time to prepare between rounds, not a lower bar.
A new study in the International Journal of Conflict Management finds that negotiation training raises people's self-perceived emotional intelligence and leadership potential, not just their deal-making skill. Here's how to practice it so it transfers.
Harvard's Max Bazerman has a new book explaining why video calls make negotiating harder than either party realizes. Here's the concept behind it and how to compensate.
CNBC reported this week that most active job seekers have now faced an AI interviewer, and the platforms behind them have quietly shifted from reading your face to scoring how you sound. Here's how to prepare for a screener that's listening, not watching.
New hiring data shows the average interview process now takes 33% more rounds than it did in 2021. Here's how to keep your delivery consistent instead of peaking too early.
A new book from Harvard Business School's Max Bazerman explains why video calls carry less information than in-person meetings, and that gap is exactly why so many interviews and negotiations feel off over Zoom.
Sixteen states and D.C. now require salary ranges in job postings, and New York just cracked down on employers who game the rule with vague placeholder ranges. Here's how to negotiate well when the number is already on the page.
A new meta-analysis of 145 studies finds that how you sound and carry yourself in the first minute predicts hiring outcomes more than your resume does. Here's how to prepare for the part interviewers actually judge.
Angela Duckworth's new book, Situated, argues that changing your environment beats relying on willpower. Here's what that means for how you should actually practice before your next interview or big pitch.
New hiring data shows nearly 95 applicants now compete for every open role, but employers are converting fewer of them into hires. Here's how to make your interview answers do more work in a slower, more selective process.
Award-winning negotiation research shows confident delivery can read as competence or as dominance, depending on the room. Here's how to tell which one you're signaling.
A new leadership book out this month revisits decades of research on what makes people trust you, and the finding comes down to a single sentence habit most professionals get wrong.
Job openings just fell to their lowest level in years and quitting has stalled, which means less leverage for workers. Here's a research-backed way to negotiate confidently anyway.
New data shows a quarter of AI-screened interviews now happen between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and most candidates have already faced an AI interviewer. Here's how to prepare for a format that plays by different rules.
Research shows that speaking your answer out loud, not just reading it, is the single biggest factor in interview confidence.