Executive coaching: a retention channel to bridge the senior-middle leadership gap

Purpose This paper explores how an emotionally informed executive coaching intervention can support leadership development and retention by strengthening relationships and bridge leadership divides across age cohorts, career stages, and professional backgrounds in a civil engineering firm. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a qualitative case-study design informed by participatory action research. The coaching intervention was implemented over six months within an age diverse engineering leadership team, allowing continuous reflection, learning and adaptation throughout the process. Findings This paper identified how the coaching intervention enhanced leaders’ self-awareness, empathy, and relational effectiveness across an age diverse workforce. These shifts supported more reflective leadership practices and contributed to improved leadership continuity and retention-relevant behaviors. Research limitations/implications This paper focused on a specific case study; therefore, for a more generalizable result, extending the scope and perhaps a mixed study could enhance the study. Practical implications The paper provides guidance for organizations on using emotionally informed coaching to strengthen leadership development and improve retention. Social implications This paper suggests that emotionally adaptive leadership coaching can contribute to organizational resilience, ethical leadership practice, and sustainable workforce development. Originality/value This paper offers busy practitioners a clear, practical coaching framework that combines emotional awareness, reflection and leadership development into one easy-to-apply model, while supporting more meaningful leadership growth.