Coach on the ground: The golden stretch – supporting senior leaders to stay and thrive

Increasingly in my coaching work, senior leaders tell me they feel burned out, disengaged, and unsure whether to continue in the built environment. Many are Gen X (born 1965-80), navigating their “golden stretch”, the final 10-20 years of their career where their expertise and perspective peak.

It should be a time of contribution and legacy, yet mounting pressures tell a different story. With volatile markets, digital transformation and regulatory change accelerating, the weight on built environment Gen X leaders is immense. 

Unique pressures on Gen X leaders

Many have built decades of expertise and credibility, led major projects, navigated global complexity and carried responsibility at scale. But Gen X leadership pressures are unique: 

• Life in the sandwich – Supporting children staying at home longer, while also caring for aging parents, all alongside high-stakes leadership responsibilities.
• Caught between generations – Balancing workplace expectations from both older and younger colleagues, while staying true to your own leadership values.
• Bridging the analogue/digital divide – The only generation to build careers pre and post-digital, constantly upskilling while leading technological adaptions.
• Always-on, always responsible – Leading complex projects in a digitally connected world, where deadlines, budgets and emails never pause.

Yet, as they approach their legacy years, they might start to ask: What do I want this chapter to feel like? That reflection often comes alongside new opportunities: kids starting secondary school, university or their own careers; greater financial stability; perhaps opening up new freedom to focus on purpose, impact, and fulfilment. Common questions I hear from clients include:

• Where am I in my career right now?
• Is this where I imagined I would be?
• Have my priorities shifted, and what makes me happy now?
• What needs to change, and how do I start?

 These questions often arrive alongside physical and emotional signals that should not be ignored:

• Running on empty – Long hours, relentless demands leave you drained, yet you keep pushing through.
• Life and work out of sync – Family, leadership, health and personal priorities feel like a non-stop juggling act.
• Foggy and isolated – Decisions feel unclear, clarity is evasive. It’s hard to find space in amongst all the noise.
• Erratic reactions – Small triggers spark outsized responses, sleep suffers, your mind never stops racing.
• Neglecting yourself – Motivation drops, exercise and self-care slips, you socially disengage.

Why this matters

Gen X burn-out in the built environment is real, and it has consequences. Senior leaders are quietly leaving the industry, taking decades of wisdom and expertise with them. The talent pipeline is already fragile, with a skills shortage, ageing workforce and low next-gen uptake:

• Burn-out – 85% of UK workers report work-related exhaustion (The Times).
• Gen X exodus – Over 28% of built environment workers are aged over 50, with 25-30% expected to retire by 2036 (Technical Moves),
• Skills shortage – Employers need 225,000 additional construction workers by 2027, yet 210,000 left the sector in 2023 alone (Prospects).

I know this from experience. At 46, burn-out hit me like a freight train. Long hours, shrinking project teams and budgets, market uncertainty, regulatory changes, a three-year insurance claim converting my home into a leaking construction site, and a health scare that could potentially have three months to live – it all collided.

Personally, I like this definition: “Burn-out is running on fumes while your coffee supply asks for therapy!”

Then redundancy arrived. The Big three – home + health + work, everything crashed at once. Physically, mentally, emotionally, I had nothing left in the tank.

The World Health Organisation defines burn-out as “a result of chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. Personally, I like this definition: “Burn-out is running on fumes while your coffee supply asks for therapy!” 

Finding your way back

When I hit rock bottom, a coach asked me one simple question that changed everything: “What makes you happy now?”

I had never given myself the headspace to ask it. My career had been a non-stop climb, chasing achievement without pausing to consider my “why”. As leadership expert Simon Sinek explains, your “why” is your mission, the heart behind everything you do.

Don’t wait for rock bottom. Pay attention to creeping signs, that voice in your gut keeping you awake at night and act before burn-out takes hold

For me, the golden stretch answer was not exit, but realignment: to give back with intention. I realised my purpose was not just to survive the hamster wheel; it was to help others navigate tough transition moments with resilience, clarity and fulfilment so that they would not face what I did alone. I went on to study neuroscience, coaching and positive psychology, becoming an accredited executive and leadership coach.

The lesson? Don’t wait for rock bottom. Pay attention to creeping signs, that voice in your gut keeping you awake at night and act before burn-out takes hold.

Most importantly, ask for help when first signs appear instead of pushing through alone; a reflex many of us in Gen X know well. Raised in an era of peak divorce, working parents and after-school self-supervision, many of us learned to figure it out ourselves, shake it off and get on with it. That resilience made us capable resilient leaders, but it can also keep you silent when support would help. Precaution, not reaction, is true strength and having a coach by your side isn’t weakness, it’s strategic leadership.

Coaching can unlock new possibilities aligned to purpose in your built environment golden stretch years. A slight career realignment might mean mentoring emerging next-gen talent to strengthen the industry from both ends, shaping and influencing teams, stepping into advisory, board, or consultancy roles, launching long-delayed passion projects, upskilling in technology or sustainable practices, redesigning work–life balance, or using your experience to give back in a more intentional way. These shifts don’t require walking away. They allow you to retain your influence, while consciously shaping the legacy you want to leave.

The built environment cannot afford to lose Gen X senior leaders. I have been there myself, burned out, with home, health and career collapsing simultaneously. But hitting rock bottom became the catalyst to discover my “why”, realign my purpose, and pivot to giving back while staying in the industry.

By noticing the signs early, seeking support, and realigning during the golden stretch, senior leaders can thrive, crafting a legacy that energises them rather than burns them out. Leadership in your legacy years is not about having all the answers; it’s about adapting, contributing with purpose, and making an impact that lasts.

That is how we can keep Gen X engaged, resilient, and thriving, ensuring the built environment benefits from their wisdom for many more years to come.