Measuring and Celebrating the Mission
Find out if your hush-hush plans have actually taken off—or if you just rode this eight-week train to another meltdown.
Remember how we started? We were all ignoring the fact that none of our employees had any clue about our secret mission.
Then we tackled it, step by step.
Now we’re at the final stretch: how to measure if all this is working and how to celebrate in a way that keeps your team motivated.
1. Measuring Beyond KPIs and Spreadsheets
Your secret mission likely isn’t as simple as “Make X in revenue.” It’s more like “transform an industry” or “break the mold of how we do sales.”
Sure, money helps—but intangible signals can be just as crucial.
You’ll need to rely on both “soft” and “hard” metrics to understand the full story. Here’s how you can tell the difference between them.
Hard Metrics:
Revenue, growth, market penetration: Are you actually selling more, or did that “insane pivot” yield zero clients?
Time to close: Are deals happening faster, or is your pipeline stagnating?
Churn: If customers or employees keep fleeing, something’s off.
Soft Metrics:
Team morale: Are employees leaning in with new ideas, or do they slump in silence during Zoom calls?
Cultural buy-in: Do they understand the “trust-based” approach, or are they stealthily continuing old methods?
Staff engagement: Are they asking questions that show they see the bigger picture?
It’s actually easy to see how soft and hard metrics play out… if you know what you’re looking for.
For example, years ago, we acquired a company to supercharge our sales. Three years later: crickets. No material sales boost.
We realized we needed a major shift—less “selling,” more “building trust.” So, we created a process to replace sales managers with “virtual CIOs.”
On the hard-metric side, we tracked pipeline velocity and new client conversions.
But we also measured soft factors: team morale, how many leads turned into genuine partnerships, and whether staff embraced the new trust-based script instead of “sales pitch mania.”
Without both sets of data, we’d have missed the real progress.
2. Know When to Celebrate
If you wait to celebrate until you’re #1 in the market, you’ll never celebrate. Is that the life you want to lead? Is that how you want to reward the victories your team achieved?
Missions are marathons with mini sprints along the way. Recognize achievements, big or small, so your team doesn’t feel like it’s all grind, no glow.
Why Celebrate?
Boosts morale: People see tangible proof they’re making a dent in the universe (or at least in your sub-niche).
Eases pressure: It can’t all be 14-hour days and slamming coffee. A bit of confetti keeps everyone from meltdown territory.
Of course, that’s not to say that you need to celebrate everything. Or, even more importantly, make sure your celebrations don’t trigger any fallout.
Case in point: In that same “trust-based” rework, I spent weeks collaborating with one of our best management team members. We re-wrote job descriptions, shifted the entire sales structure, and I was so pumped to roll it out.
Then, the second we pulled the rip cord, she quit—on the spot.
Turned out she had no idea this new approach would impact her own role so drastically. Major secret mission fail on my part. I’d baked her into the new mission without fully spelling it out.
So yes, celebrate, but also communicate. Otherwise, your star collaborator might bolt right when you’re uncorking the champagne.
3. Keys to Keep Secret Missions in Check
Now that you’re measuring success and throwing mini-parties, let’s ensure you don’t slip back into secret mission land:
Tell people the “real” why: If your staff is shocked by an org chart change, you might be plotting in silence again.
Make sure your job descriptions reflect the mission: If you label someone a ‘Sales Manager’ but want them to act like a ‘Virtual CIO,’ guess what? Confusion.
Don’t blindside your key players: If a big shift will surprise any of your all-stars, talk to them first, not last.
Don’t just grind—celebrate your wins: If you can’t recall the last time you said “Woohoo,” fix that.
4. Mission Transparency Changes Everything
From that first epiphany about not sharing your grand plan, to the meltdown of employees who never realized you wanted them to become 10x leaders—this series has hopefully hammered home one truth: clarity rules.
Tell your staff the bigger picture.
Measure both hard data and soft signals.
Recognize victories, even if they’re small. It keeps the momentum alive.
When done right, your hush-hush mission morphs into a communal mission—where staff genuinely invests in the outcome, and you’re not forcing them at rhetorical gunpoint to align with some grand plan they never heard.
So, What’s Next?
Your mission might evolve, or you might discover a new pivot next quarter. But each time, you’ll know to:
Communicate the dream.
Build 30-60-90 steps or GWC checks, so folks know what success looks like.
Measure both intangible morale and tangible ROI.
Celebrate early, often, and with open communication—so you don’t accidentally nuke your best collaborator again.
The roller coaster of entrepreneurial leadership never ends. But at least now you’re strapped in with a plan: no more secret missions lurking under the table. And if you do spin up another hush-hush plan at 2 a.m., you’ll know exactly how (and when) to share it—so your team actually wants to ride that coaster with you, arms in the air, screaming in excited unity.
Now go forth, measure your intangible ambitions, celebrate your messy progress, and keep the meltdown index as low as possible. Because that’s how we push forward with a grin instead of a grimace.
Disruption with a side of humor—
Kirk Drake
