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Bringing Out the Best in People by Alan Loy McGinnis

  • Writer: Lars Christensen
    Lars Christensen
  • 4 days ago
  • 6 min read

I finished this book in June 2025. I recommend this book 3/10.


Why you should read this book:

This leadership book is like the manager's pocket book. It will give you twelve chapters, each highlighting an area of focus. The book is from the 80s and has the same feel as the famous, "How to Influence Friends, and Influence People."


Get your copy here.


🚀 The book in three sentences

  1. It comes down to how you treat people.

  2. Know what you want and what people can expect from you

  3. Don't quit on others and on yourself. Lincoln could do it, so can you.


📝 My notes and thoughts

  • P21. The German poet Goethe observed, "The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources." Yet this law is ignored by a surprising number of hard-working people whose careers have not been kissed by success. They've failed to accomplish big things because they have failed to master the art of inspiring others.

  • P32. Goethe stated the principles this way: "Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be."

  • P34. One chief executive officer, when asked, "What are you in business for?" replied, "I am in the business of growing people—people who are stronger, more autonomous, more self-reliant, more competent. We make and sell at a profit things that people want to buy so we can pay for all this." It is not by accident that his employees, who probably would grumble about working eight hours a day for mere food and shelter, cheerfully work 10 and 12 hours a day for a leader who keeps such goals clearly before them.

  • P40. The future had looked so bleak that she was ready to resign and had even called her supervisor several times to quit. But the manager kept persuading her that she had not tried long enough, that she would not have been hired if there had not been unusual potential in her. Her voice cracked as she related the story. Then she made this insightful remark, "For all those months when I wanted to quit and didn't think I had any future, Joan believed in me more than I believed in myself. She wanted me to succeed even more than I did." That sales manager had effectively employed our first rule of motivation: Expect the best from people you lead.

  • P42. "To help other people recognize what they want, then help them decide how to get it."

  • P54. Whether it applies to loving our mates or motivating our vice-presidents, is the importance of beginning with the needs of the other person. Some think they must lead by beating their chests and saying, "Follow me, I am strong, and I know more than you." But the real leaders say, "Tell me about yourself." They know that if they listen long enough, people will explain how they can be motivated.

  • P59. At times, Cuomo was convinced that he would lose. Writing in his diary one night late in the campaign, he was tired and depressed. Looking for a pencil, he riffled through some papers in the back of his desk drawer and turned up one of his father's old business cards. He read: "Andrea Cuomo, Italian-American Groceries—Fine Imported Products," and began to think about his father. When Andrea Cuomo arrived in America, he could not speak English and took a job digging sewer trenches. Eventually they acquired a tiny 24-hour grocery store, behind which the struggling family lived for many years. After staring at the card, Cuomo wrote in his diary that night: "I couldn't help wondering what Poppa would have said if I had told him I was tired—God forbid—that I was discouraged..."

  • P62. To be an inspiring leader, you do not have to be the smartest, or even the hardest-working person in the group. What it does require is that you be firm—firm in your dedication to excellence, even if it makes you temporarily unpopular. Leadership doesn't mean winning a popularity contest. "Some of the most talented people are terrible leaders because they have a crippling need to be loved by everyone,"  says James Schorr of Holiday Inns. Coach Lombardi's philosophy was this: "I hold it more important to have the players' confidence than their affection." And child psychologist Haim Ginott said, "A good parent must like his children, but he must not have an urgent need to be liked by them every minute of the day."

  • P88. "You'd better know what you want, because you'll probably get it," says Dan Greenburg, and indeed there is an almost bewitching way in which our success in life is dependent on our ability to set very high and very specific goals. The legendary industrialist, Henry Kaiser, when asked to give his philosophy of success, said, "Decide what you want most of all out of life, then write down your goals and plan to reach them." The more I counsel people, the more I'm aware that most people are very different from Kaiser in that respect. The drift along and their destinies are determined largely by the willy-nilly of circumstances. Like Mr. Micawber, they're always hoping that something will turn up, but good things don't usually "turn up" for us any more than they did for Mr. Micawber.

  • P105. How long has it been since you took a full 60 seconds to talk to your son or daughter about some fine thing they've just done? Or your secretary, or the managers who work under you? What we're discussing here is a very basic courtesy that should apply in all human relations—taking the time to thank people who help us. My friend Mike Somdal is a specialist at this. One reason he is so successful in business is that he has mastered the fine art of making people feel good by thanking them regularly. Often, he will call customers simply to thank them again for the order they placed last week, or for the recommendation they made to another customer, or for the lunch.

  • P106. The art of the compliment:

    • Hand out commendations in public.

    • Use every success as an excuse for celebration.

    • Employ some gesture to give weight to your commendation (Like a gift).

    • Be very specific with your praise.

  • P149. Steps to building Esprit de Corps:

    • Reward cooperation.

    • Assign responsibility.

    • Plan occasions when people can be away together.

    • Assign high value to communication.

  • P154. Robert Updegraff, writing many years ago about one's job, said:

    • A man should be grateful every hour of every day for the troubles of his job: they pay at least half his wage or salary. For if there were no troubles, it would be easy to get someone to do his work for half, or even a third of the pay he is getting. If he wants a bigger job, with a better income, he has to look for more troubles, and learn how to like them. A bigger job will usually gravitate to him—often actually seek him out—if he is capable of coping with the problems and troubles that go with it. Especially is this true if he has cultivated the knack of doing everything pleasantly and with apparent ease and assurance. It is this special knack, which incidentally is perfectly possible for almost any man to cultivate, that usually puts the fancy edge on a salary.

  • P155. That is, they are not asking for carbon copies of themselves, but independent and creative thinkers who have minds of their own and who are strong enough to lead the people below them. The trouble with choosing yes-men to work under you is that they, in turn, will never be capable of leading others. Your aim is to grow leaders who can do your job for you, enabling you to rise to other things. In the process, you may have to put up with some testiness.

  • P168. No American better illustrates the ideal balance than Abraham Lincoln. He was viciously attacked by the Eastern press and, being a sensitive and wise man, he did not ignore his critics. Yet he knew that he could be debilitated if he tried to please everyone. So he reportedly posted this sign:

    • If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how—the very best I can: and I mean to keep doing so until the end.

  • P170. Self-Renewal for the Motivator:

    • Associate with successful, positive people.

    • Monitor carefully the ideas entering your mind.

    • Take advantage of the wealth of information now available on inexpensive audio cassettes.

    • Attend classes and seminars.

    • Keep a journal in which you write down goals and a record of your spiritual journey.

© 2025 by Lars Christensen

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