Character Guide for Leadership and Self-Deception
Set inside the high-performing but introspective culture of the Zagrum Company, this narrative uses a corporate fable to teach how self-deception undermines leadership, teamwork, and families. Each character embodies a mindset—either trapped “in the box” or striving to see others as people—so their conflicts and breakthroughs double as lessons for the reader. The cast spans executives, spouses, and children, showing how the same habits that corrode a workplace also erode a home.
Main Characters
Tom Callum
Tom Callum is the story’s protagonist and the reader’s stand-in: a driven new senior manager at Zagrum whose “Bud meeting” becomes a wake-up call to his own self-deception. Initially ambitious, defensive, and convinced he’s a good boss and husband, he justifies his frustrations at work and at home, especially with his wife, Laura, and his son, Todd. Guided (and challenged) by Bud, Tom begins to see how his “in the box” mindset shapes his reactions to colleagues like Joyce Mulman and colors his memories of a past boss, Chuck Staehli. His arc traces the hard shift from blame to awareness, modeling Personal Responsibility and Transformation as he learns to see others as people rather than obstacles.
Bud Jefferson
Bud Jefferson is Zagrum’s Executive Vice President and Tom’s mentor—calm, candid, and deeply practiced in the Arbinger principles. Patient without being indulgent, he uses his own missteps, including stories about his wife, Nancy, to illustrate self-betrayal and the pull of “the box.” Working alongside leaders like Lou and Kate, Bud turns Tom’s skepticism into curiosity, and then into ownership, by connecting principles to Tom’s lived relationships. Functionally a steady guide rather than a transformer himself, Bud embodies the book’s vision of Leadership and Influence: influence grounded in humility, clarity, and care.
Lou Herbert
Lou Herbert—Zagrum’s legendary retired president—serves as the story’s sage, offering the company’s origin story of transformation. Once an “in the box” executive whose behavior sparked the “March Meltdown,” he nearly lost his family and company before confronting his self-justifying images, especially through the crisis with his son, Cory. Lou’s before-and-after contrast (echoing leaders like Chuck) demonstrates how facing Self-Deception and 'The Box' can convert accountability from a threat into a gift. His mentorship of Bud and Kate anchors the culture Tom is stepping into.
Kate Stenarude
Kate Stenarude, Zagrum’s President and CEO, personifies top-down commitment to the “out-of-the-box” mindset as the company’s number-one strategic priority. Approachable and frank, she admits her own blind spots—especially with her son, Bryan—to show how Collusion in Conflict can trap even high-performing leaders. Her history with Lou—once disillusioned under his old leadership, later returning to help build the transformed Zagrum—proves that real culture change is both personal and institutional. For Tom, Kate’s endorsement underscores that this isn’t soft-skills lip service; it’s the backbone of how Zagrum leads.
Supporting Characters
Laura Callum
Laura Callum is Tom’s wife, and their strained marriage dramatizes how mutual blame sustains collusion at home. Mostly seen through Tom’s biased lens, she comes across as hurt and resigned, her sarcasm mirroring the distance she feels. When Tom begins to change, her tentative, hopeful response shows how one person’s shift can start dissolving a cycle that felt immovable.
Chuck Staehli
Chuck Staehli, the COO at Tom’s former company, Tetrix, functions as the archetype of an “in the box” boss: self-promoting, credit-hogging, and blind to others. Tom’s fixation on Chuck helps him grasp the concepts—while avoiding accountability for his own similar tendencies—until Bud redirects that mirror back onto Tom. Chuck remains a cautionary example of how a leader’s mindset can toxify a culture.
Todd Callum
Todd Callum, Tom and Laura’s teenage son, quietly reveals how a parent’s in-the-box view can invite the very behavior it condemns. Withdrawn and wary of his father, Todd becomes “the problem” Tom needs in order to justify his frustration. Tom’s choice to connect with Todd over working on a car marks a decisive turn from judgment to relationship.
Minor Characters
- Nancy Jefferson: Bud’s wife and the heart of his story about Self-Betrayal as the Root of Self-Deception, when he chooses not to get up for their crying baby and then builds justifications around that choice.
- Joyce Mulman: An employee in Tom’s division whose harmless action—erasing his whiteboard—exposes the damage Tom’s in-the-box reactions can cause and becomes a turning point for his self-awareness.
- Sheryl: Tom’s secretary, whose cautious, fearful demeanor toward him reflects how his team perceives his leadership; her fluency with Zagrum’s philosophy catches Tom off guard.
- Cory Herbert: Lou’s son, whose struggles with drugs and the law catalyze Lou’s reckoning and eventual transformation as a leader and father.
- Anita Carlo: Bud’s former supervising attorney, an exemplar of out-of-the-box leadership who took responsibility for Bud’s mistake, inspiring loyalty and genuine accountability rather than blame.
Character Relationships & Dynamics
Mentorship defines the company’s backbone: Lou teaches Bud and Kate, then Bud guides Tom. This passing of insight through relationship—not position—shows how influence spreads when leaders see people, not roles, and model candor without condemnation.
Collusion drives the family conflicts. Tom and Laura trap each other in a loop of blame—his coldness justifies her sarcasm, which justifies his withdrawal—until Tom interrupts the cycle by changing himself. The same dynamic plays out between Tom and Todd: Tom’s view of his son as “a problem” invites withdrawal, which then “proves” Tom right, a trap Tom begins to dismantle by choosing connection.
Workplace dynamics contrast toxic and transformed leadership. Under leaders like Chuck, subordinates feel used and unseen, while under Lou (post-transformation), Kate, and Bud, accountability coexists with respect. Tom’s early interactions with Joyce and Sheryl reveal how seeing coworkers as obstacles creates fear and friction; his apology and repair efforts signal the shift toward trust.
Across the cast, two informal factions emerge: the “out-of-the-box” leadership cohort (Lou, Bud, Kate) who prioritize people and results together, and the “in-the-box” posture (embodied by Chuck and mirrored in Tom’s early mindset) that breeds blame, turnover, and resentment. The narrative’s power lies in how personal choices—at home and at work—move characters between these camps, proving that culture change begins with individual transformation.