Enhancing Leadership Performance at AtkinsRéalis

This case study shows how AtkinsRéalis, a global leader in infrastructure and engineering, partnered with BeTalent by Zircon to enhance executive cohesion, strengthen wellbeing and elevate strategic decision-making in a fast-moving, high-pressure environment. Using strengths-based coaching, resilience training, and decision-making diagnostics, AtkinsRéalis built a resilient culture that drives performance.

Challenge

Despite being seasoned and successful, AtkinsRéalis’ executive leaders recognised that relentless market pressures risked draining energy, clouding judgement and straining team dynamics. They needed an evidence-based understanding of their strengths, pressure points and decision-making styles to maintain wellbeing and sustain high performance.

Our Approach

BeTalent by Zircon delivered an integrated programme using three diagnostics — Strengths, Decision Styles and Resilience — to enhance both individual and collective leadership performance. Through personalised coaching and facilitated team sessions, leaders explored their unique strengths, pressure points and decision-making preferences, building a shared understanding of how to operate more effectively together.

Strengths: Leaders gained clearer insight into their individual and collective strengths, enabling more confident strategic thinking, improved collaboration and greater innovation.

Decision Styles: The team identified their preferred decision-making approaches, allowing them to streamline processes, improve accountability and assign responsibilities based on the level of strategic importance or need for consensus.

Resilience: The resilience assessment and team exercises gave leaders a clearer view of personal triggers and stressors, helping them support each other, spot early signs of overload and sustain wellbeing under pressure.

Deployment and Impact

BeTalent by Zircon designed a robust executive coaching programme tailored for the leadership team’s unique circumstances. Leaders completed the Strengths, Decision Styles and Resilience diagnostics, followed by personalised coaching and facilitated team debriefs that surfaced individual strengths, blind spots, pressure points and decision-making habits. These insights were then translated into shared practices through team exercises that created a common language for collaboration, resilience and accountability.

Enhanced Strategic Thinking & Innovation

A clearer view of individual and collective strengths improved the team’s strategic thinking and sharpened leadership effectiveness. The president gained actionable insight into how best to manage expectations, align responsibilities and support leaders in playing to their strengths.

Improved Decision-Making Processes

Understanding decision styles helped the team streamline processes and assign decision-making responsibilities more intentionally based on strategic importance, required levels of consultation or opportunities for delegation. This led to quicker, clearer and more accountable decisions.

Stronger Team Resilience and Wellbeing

The Resilience assessment and subsequent team discussions revealed personal triggers, stressors and coping habits. A shared resilience vocabulary enabled colleagues to recognise early signs of overload, redistribute work when needed and establish regular wellbeing check-ins. This strengthened mutual support and ensured sustained performance under pressure.