HR Brilliance Awards 2026 | HR Consultancy of the Year | Brilliance Award Winner: RHR International

About the Brilliance Awards Winner

In this edition of Behind the Brilliance, we spotlight RHR International, winner of the HR Consultancy of the Year award at the HR Brilliance Awards.

Orla Leonard, Senior Partner, Head of International, and Region Lead, Europe at RHR International, reflects on the firm’s approach to leadership consulting and what it takes to support leaders in complex environments.

With more than 80 years of experience, RHR International has built a reputation for working closely with organisations on leadership development, from executive assessment and coaching to succession planning and long-term development.

“Sustainable senior leadership effectiveness begins with human behaviour. Psychology provides the “why” behind how leaders think, react, and make decisions, especially under stress.”

Interview with Orla Leonard, Senior Partner and Head of RHR International

Congratulations on winning the Brilliance Award for HR Consultancy of the Year at the HR Brilliance Awards!
Can you share a brief overview of RHR International and what defines your approach to leadership consulting?

For more than 80 years, RHR International has been a globally respected leadership consulting firm. Founded by pioneering psychologists, RHR combines behavioural science with business expertise to help founders, boards, executives, teams, and HR leaders master the art and science of leadership. Our consultants partner with clients to assess, coach, and develop leaders who drive business performance and shape organisational culture. Through our world-class Assessment and Coaching & Development practices, we build robust succession pipelines and leadership strategies for sustained enterprise success.

RHR believes leadership is a noble endeavour and a powerful force for good, unlocking the potential in every leader to create lasting impact for organisations and society.

RHR International is known for combining psychology with business performance.
Why is this blend so important when working with senior leaders and organisations today?

The blend of psychology and business performance is important because sustainable senior leadership effectiveness begins with human behaviour. Psychology provides the “why” behind how leaders think, react and make decisions, especially under stress.  Business performance expertise provides the “how”, ensuring that these insights turn into tangible outcomes; stronger strategy execution, healthier culture from the top down and overall improved performance. Today’s senior leaders are faced with constant volatility, geopolitical pressures, economic shifts, the rapid invasion of AI, and other social pressures, and with psychological understanding, they are equipped to respond effectively in high-stress situations. Without this psychological insight, performance becomes reactive and unsustainable, but with it, leaders are better prepared to make decisions under pressure and lead with resilience.

Leadership is human first, so when we understand the human system, the performance follows.

You partner closely with clients rather than offering off-the-shelf solutions.
How does this strategy-first, tailored approach create deeper and more lasting impact?

We don’t believe in off-the-shelf solutions because leadership challenges and the people experiencing them are never generic. Our strategy-first approach begins with understanding the client’s business priorities, culture, needs and future direction. From there, we customise solutions that can evolve as market conditions and organisational needs change. This context-specific solution takes into account unique company cultures, and the personalised assessment uncovers organisational dynamics better than generic fixes could. When solutions are co-created with clients, leaders and teams feel more ownership and are more likely to buy-in to implement changes that will sustain.

Leadership pipelines and succession are central to your work.
How does RHR help organisations prepare leaders for roles of greater scale and complexity?

RHR offers insights and coaching to help organisations build and sustain high-performing leadership pipelines at scale, as well as best-in-class benchmarking against 5,000 of the world’s best leaders. As a consulting firm, rather than a recruitment agency, RHR provides objective, data-backed recommendations for promotions, career planning and talent deployment. Data-driven leadership assessments leverage multi-rater, multi-method protocols and proprietary frameworks (such as Readiness for Scale) to identify leaders ready for complex roles. RHR proactively maps current and future leadership needs, identifying both visible and hidden talent and uncovering gaps in readiness. To align with business strategy, succession planning is grounded in the organisation’s strategic direction and leadership imperatives, ensuring talent pipelines meet long-term business needs. Leaders are equipped for greater scale and complexity through tailored coaching, development programs, and growth opportunities, accelerating their readiness for senior roles while strengthening the company’s continuity.

Your Leading at Scale programme has delivered strong, measurable results.
What do you believe makes this programme particularly effective for leadership development?

Our Leading at Scale Program is effective because it addresses one of the most difficult transitions in leadership: moving from managing functionality to leading company-wide. The program is a blended approach combining cohort-based learning and one-on-one coaching, offering both peer insight and individualised development. These future leaders build the capabilities required to operate at a more complex and broader level of responsibility. Its effectiveness is highlighted in a multi-client study of 228 leaders: 99% improved at least one development goal, 95% improved two, and 74% improved all three. Additionally, 91% of managers reported significant increases in participants’ readiness for roles of greater scale and complexity. Clients note that as leaders grow, organisational performance rises, productivity improves, and turnover decreases, ultimately increasing internal mobility, lowering recruitment costs and preserving institutional knowledge.

Innovation plays a growing role in your work, including the use of AI-supported tools.
How do you balance technological innovation with a human-first consulting approach?

The balance between technological innovation and human-first consulting is clear: technology enhances, doesn’t replace, human judgment. RHR uses AI-supported data analytics to bring deeper insights into leadership potential and development pathways, while keeping human behavioural expertise at the core of interpretation and development. We are developing and preparing to launch new assessment and coaching platforms that integrate seamlessly with artificial intelligence, enabling deeper insights and predictive analytics while keeping people at the centre. These new platforms will personalise development journeys, identify leadership potential with greater precision, and measure impact in real time, setting a new standard for scalable, technology-enabled leadership development.

Even as these tools continue to evolve, RHR’s work is grounded by one-on-one coaching, personalised development plans and strong partnerships with clients. AI and analytics help RHR assess larger pools of talent so consultants can focus their expertise on complex judgment and leadership refinement.

Client trust and long-term relationships are a clear strength for RHR.
What do you believe keeps organisations working with you over many years?

Our over 80-year legacy reflects our consistent impact across industries, geographies and leadership levels. We focus not just on solving the leadership challenge they bring to us, but also on strengthening the systems that sustain performance over time, such as succession pipelines, executive team alignment, culture, and leadership capability. These long-term relationships we have with clients are built on the skills, frameworks and mindsets that RHR consultants deliver to leaders, and the sustained impact it makes on their organisation is where clients see the ROI. Clients trust us because our recommendations are rooted in evidence-based assessments, the work aligns with business strategy, solutions are tailored, and we measure the impact and ROI.

With consultants operating globally, how do you ensure cultural understanding and consistency across regions?

Operating globally requires our consultants to be consistent and culturally nuanced to be successful. At RHR, we ensure the balance through shared methodologies and frameworks that create alignment across regions and languages, while coaching leaders toward greater intercultural fluency along an intercultural development continuum, allowing them to move from polarisation to acceptance and adaptation. Inclusion and belonging with cross-cultural lenses, as well as learning about the uniqueness of one’s culture, are prioritised at RHR and are used as a gateway to learning about other cultures. Even when a company has a strong culture, the need for intercultural understanding remains, creating opportunities for team members to learn about each other’s styles and form personal connections.

Winning this Brilliance Award is a significant milestone. What does this recognition mean for RHR International, and how does it reflect the work of your global team?

The award recognises RHR’s decades-long commitment to helping organisations develop leaders and build sustainable leadership pipelines. The honour reflects RHR’s Leading at Scale program, use of evidence-based assessments and cutting-edge approaches to leadership development, as well as our collective skill and dedication to operating worldwide to deliver consistent, high-quality leadership development solutions. Winning the award highlights the strength of RHR’s client relationships and the meaningful, measurable results delivered through collaboration.

Finally, what does “brilliance” mean to you at RHR International, and how does this award reflect your commitment to developing leaders who drive both performance and positive impact?

“Brilliance” means achieving measurable results and developing leaders who can navigate complexity, scale effectively and drive organisational performance. Human-centred impact is built through the blend of psychology, data and coaching to create experiences that inspire, engage and support their teams. Brilliance is about creating those leaders who can mentor others and ensure organisational resilience, beyond immediate wins and through unprecedented challenges. The award reflects RHR’s mission to develop leaders who not only drive business results but also foster inclusive and purposeful organisational cultures from the top down.

Celebrating Brilliance

RHR International’s work is grounded in a clear, consistent approach to leadership, focused on helping organisations build capability that lasts.

Their ability to combine behavioural insight with practical application continues to shape how leaders are developed across different industries and regions.

Through Behind the Brilliance, we continue to highlight the work behind award-winning organisations, offering a closer look at the thinking and discipline that lead to results that hold.

About the International Brilliance Awards™

Founded in 2014, the International Brilliance Awards™ recognise work defined by clear thinking, strong execution, and meaningful business impact across organisations worldwide.

The International Brilliance Awards™ serve as the flagship programme of the Brilliance Awards family, which includes Business Brilliance Awards, HR Brilliance Awards, Internal Communications (IC) Brilliance Awards, Marketing & PR Brilliance Awards, Sales & Revenue Brilliance Awards, and Sustainability & ESG Brilliance Awards.

Each programme focuses on a distinct area of organisational performance, while maintaining a consistent standard of evaluation through an independent, blind judging process.