Teams have their objectives which are supposed to be shared by all members. These objectives are usually in line with the corporate ones. However, individuals also have their own objectives and expectations from the groupwork. When the latter ones are not shared with the other members of the team they are called ‘hidden agendas’. Examples of hidden agendas are the following:

• Individuals taking advantage of a meeting in order to impress other colleagues
• Individuals taking advantage of a meeting in order to ‘defeat’ other colleagues for personal reasons

When hidden agendas prevail over the team’s objectives they risk to compromise the team’s success.
For this reason, as managers, we should make sure our team members talk to each other as openly as possible so as to decrease the likelihood for hidden agendas to grow stronger.

'Blind spots' are unfavourable situations where some team members share information about another team member who is not made aware of that. Moreover, the other members are likely not to tell him/her the truth as they may well be afraid of hurting his/her feelings.

For example, a member may not be considered competent or skilled enough to carry out a task and no-one will tell him/her the real reason why he/she will never get the responsibility for that specific task. This is a blind spot where information does not flow correctly.

As managers, we should make sure our team members talk to each other as openly as possible in order to decrease the likelihood for blind spots to damage the team’s atmosphere. Moreover, if a person is not told the truth about his/her skills, this person will never have the chance to improve and will be alway disadvantaged.

As managers, do we care for our team members enough to get to know them and detect blind spots and hidden agendas? How could we practically address these issues and preserve our team's success?