The sixth President of the United States was a very smart man. John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

For a long time we have known that having a dream is an integral part of greatness – in sports, in politics, in business, in religion – in life. Yet we are still married to the boring old vanilla methods of “mission, vision and values statements”. We take the tired old way, because it is familiar and “everyone does it”.

Knowing that you wish to be the “best, most customer-focused and successful [name your industry] organization in the land”, will cause eyes to roll, and smart-phones to be activated to relieve the boredom. Anyway, we are not interested in you – we want to know how you will serve, make a difference and make the world a better place – not how you are going to be big and rich. A mission statement may be about you, but a dream is about how you will serve others.

Leadership is about inspiring people, and they are inspired by dreams – in the Arab spring, the Olympics, the Stanley Cup finals, in great democracies, in cities and states, at home, in our marriages, in art and sports, and in great organizations.

Start your own revolution – a revolution of excitement, passion, renewal and uniqueness – create a dream – for you in your own life, and for your organization. Then lead your team to the dream. Marvel at the inspiration and passion that you arouse.