Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2014 April 26

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April 26

Correlation between leadership in the workplace and social skills

Are there workplace leaders who are not very skilled in their social lives or do good leaders and successful business people generally have good social skills also. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.220.128.88 (talk) 01:21, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

I'd expect that some people are good leaders when assigned to the role, but don't spontaneously become good leaders if not assigned the role. So, in a social situation they wouldn't tend to be "the life of the party", but could still do a good job managing others. StuRat (talk) 03:06, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

We need some definitions here. By "workplace leader" do you mean someone appointed to lead, somoene self-appointed to lead (through being the company owner), or someone who truly leads? In my expereince they are often quite different things. HiLo48 (talk) 06:30, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

A good leader in any field is going to have some degree of aloofness. Whether that qualifies as a good social skill is a matter of opinion. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:34, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Really, any answer to this question is going to be a matter of opinion.--Maleko Mela (talk) 21:07, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Casey Stengel said the secret to being a manager was to keep the guys who were neutral about him away from the guys who hated him. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:28, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

For reference: the top three hits on this google scholar search for /workplace leadership social skills/ all look promising [1]. You can ask here or at WP:REX if you want the full texts and can't get access through your library or other means. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:08, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

See here: "Professor Hare pointed out that psychopaths thrive in the fields of big-business and politics and can create mayhem therein. Intelligent psychopaths can be very charming and charismatic and find their way into various positions of leadership because of such outward characteristics that are combined with single-minded and determined ruthlessness. Unfortunately, such charisma and decisiveness has beguiling broad appeal to non-psychopaths who do not have the either the time or inclination to undertake or audit various leadership responsibilities themselves. Psychopaths seek to be in positions of power, crave malign thrills and enjoy manipulating others and derive a sense of superiority from such pursuits." Count Iblis (talk) 01:53, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Are you saying that anyone who wants to be a leader is a psychopath? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:28, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes, and all striped animals are zebras MChesterMC (talk) 08:45, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

Bismillah - Bohemian Rhapsody

Does anyone know if there have been protests (whether pro- or anti-Islam) against the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen on the grounds of its use of the term "Bismillah"? --69.204.228.240 (talk) 13:03, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

When Queen's Greatest Hits was released in Iran, it included a booklet explaining the lyrics, and said that the "Bismillah" in Bo Rhap was the murderer calling out to God for forgiveness before his execution. Here's an Irianian choir performing it. --Nicknack009 (talk) 14:34, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

As if nothing really mattered. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:41, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Anyway, Arabic-speaking Christians also say "Bismillah" (though not usually as part of the same longer phrases commonly used by Muslims). AnonMoos (talk) 21:53, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Maybe see Basmala#Alternative Christian meaning. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:11, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Saga of sci-fi novels (of the same author) about a cosmic war between centuries-old creatures (probably thousands of pages)

Dear Oracle,

some years ago a read a Wikipedia page speaking about a saga of sci-fi novels (of the same author), specifying that it was one of the longest as per number of pages for the same fictitious universe written by the same author of all times, where a sort of Divine Father had put some sort of Generals all around the universe in order to continue it, but then for divergences of opinions they had started to be in conflict and this was going to degenerate in a cosmic war. The original thing seemed to be that the main characters were not humanoid beings, but the galaxies themselves, or constellations, or vortexes. Or maybe each of them was in charge of a galaxy, I don't remember well enough. The main content seemed to be a cosmic war between the lords of different galaxies. Would you recognize the name of the sage from the poor description of my messed-up memories about it???? Thank you in every case!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.141.197.200 (talk) 17:52, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with the plot you desribe, or this work, but Henry_Darger wrote a huge fantasy manuscript, one of the largest I've heard of:

“ He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story ”

-just a guess, might help. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:02, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Maybe one (or more) Cthulhu Mythos deities will ring a bell. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:21, 26 April 2014 (UTC)