Samodya Nimanthi Hallaluwa pursued a Master of Arts in leadership from Trinity Western University where she explored motivation, engagement, and leadership impact on employee retention, particularly in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Canada. Passionate about workplace dynamics, Samodya Nimanthi Hallaluwa focused on transformational and servant leadership’s role in fostering employee satisfaction and reducing turnover, and the critical relationship between leadership styles and employee retention in Canadian SMEs, contributing valuable insights to both academic literature and practical business applications. Samodya Nimanthi Hallaluwa’s experience includes working in SMEs, giving her a unique perspective to bridge theoretical frameworks with practical implementation challenges faced by resource-constrained organizations. Her research interests include transformational leadership, organizational behavior, and workplace retention strategies, and she is particularly passionate about developing accessible leadership solutions for smaller organizations facing limitations in resources for employee development programs. https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0619-3696