The Giraffe Chair: Leadership Through Wellbeing by Louise Evans, Founder & CEO, The 5 Chairs

Florence, Italy--(Newsfile Corp. - July 17, 2025) - Florence-based leadership development company The 5 Chairs announces a new behavioural intelligence approach to combat declining employee wellness. 

The 5 Chairs Framework for Behavioural Transformation by Louise Evans

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Recent McKinsey Health Institute data reveals only 57% of global employees report good holistic health. The alarming statistic indicates that approximately one-third of the typical workforce operates below optimal capacity, creating significant implications for organisational performance and productivity.

Red Chair Behaviours Drive Workplace Burnout

According to The 5 Chairs methodology, leaders exhibiting "Red Chair behaviour" contribute directly to employee wellness decline through reactive patterns driven by fear, control, and unconscious bias.

"Leaders push harder when teams are already burnt out," explains Louise Evans, Founder and CEO of The 5 Chairs. "They respond to wellbeing issues with blanket policies rather than human connection, prioritising productivity metrics over psychological safety."

These reactive leadership patterns manifest in dismissing emotional signals as personal problems rather than cultural indicators. When leaders operate from the Red Chair, they react rather than reflect, managing symptoms instead of addressing root causes.

The Cost of "Push Through" Culture

Real workplace scenarios demonstrate the impact of Red Chair leadership. Teams completing major projects under tight deadlines often face immediate pressure for the next sprint without acknowledgment of their exhaustion.

"We're all under pressure. That's just the pace right now. Let's push through and circle back later," represents typical Red Chair language that signals to employees their wellbeing is secondary to performance demands.

This approach creates burnout culture where overwork becomes quietly rewarded and expressing limits is perceived as weakness. The result is employee disengagement and eventual departure from organisations.

Green Chair Leadership Offers Solution

The 5 Chairs framework guides leaders from Red Chair reactivity to Green Chair curiosity, where leaders ask critical questions about the cost of pushing through versus the need for restoration.

The shift begins when leaders move from "keep going no matter what" mentality to asking what teams need to restore before continuing. This transition from reactivity to responsibility forms the foundation of sustainable organisational wellbeing.

Leading From The Giraffe Chair

The company's "Leading From The Giraffe Chair" approach represents a transformative framework prioritising leader wellbeing before attempting to lead others. This methodology recognises that executive self-care creates more effective organisational outcomes.

Organisations implementing this approach aim to integrate wellbeing practices at all leadership levels, moving from purely performance-driven models toward frameworks recognising human wellness as fundamental to sustainable success. 

About The 5 Chairs

Founded in 2015 by Louise Evans, The 5 Chairs operates as a global leadership development and behavioural intelligence training company headquartered in Florence, Italy. The methodology has been adopted by organisations across 11 countries in corporate, educational, and public sectors.

Evans authored the foundational book "5 Chairs 5 Choices" and delivered a viral TEDx talk titled "Own Your Behaviours, Master Your Communication, Determine Your Success" with over 6 million views.

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