According to Joe Tye, “Tolkien had an intuitive understanding of the theories and practices of leadership that was far ahead of his time” (Leadership Lessons). It's a concept that even the most ordinary reader of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings can understand. Without this sense of leadership, and especially without different leadership styles, there would be no one against the other; which makes it a rather dull plot and a timid film. The story would lack substance because it would be difficult to define good versus evil, right versus wrong, and it would basically consist of lots of angry characters running around not knowing what to do. While each character in Lord of the Rings generally has a sense of leadership in their own way and are all completely different leaders, the two who are so different yet so essential in the films are Sauron, the creator of the Ring, and Aragorn, the exiled king. These two are personified by two very different leadership styles. Sauron, an evil overlord, is represented by a more conniving and selfish manner of leadership, who did not do much beneficial work to help his followers and generally only served to advance toward a better good for himself . Sauron has a general contempt for his followers and does not care who had to die on the path to his victory. Sauron only cared about the position he occupied and maintaining it; This is called coercive leadership. Alternatively, Aragorn's leadership style had a much more beneficial effect in that he intended to improve not his current situation, but that of his followers and those around him and he worked with a general concern for the ultimate fate of its supporters. Aragorn really wasn't concerned with... middle of paper ... Ragorn was the greatest leader and achieved the most success. Works Cited "Organic | Daniel Goleman." Daniel Goleman. Internet. March 26, 2012. “bully.” Online etymology dictionary. Douglas Harper, historian. May 26. 2012. Goleman, Daniel. “Leadership that gets results.” Business coaching, executive coaching, coaching services. Harvard Business Review, March-April. 2000. Internet. March 26, 2012. .The Lord of the Rings, the cinematic trilogy. Real. Peter R. Jackson. Perf. Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortenson, Sean Bastine and Cast. New Line Cinema, 2001-2003. DVD.Tye, Joe. The 12 Rings of Leadership: Classic Lessons from “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkein Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.