Importance of Leadership and Management in the Hospitality Industry

This report discusses the importance of leadership and management in the hospitality industry, using the example of Holiday Inn. It includes a self-audit, discussion on leadership styles, and an action plan for leadership development.

Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Covered in Infographics..............................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Self-audit.....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion...................................................................................................................................5
Action Plan for leadership development.....................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership practices consist of set of activities which an individual perform in order to
influence the group of people for directing their working practices toward the accomplishment of
organisational goals or objectives (Alhelalat, 2015). Leaders are visionary who formulate action
plan for providing employees with direction to perform operations. This report is based on the
importance of leadership and management for an individual and divided into two part. In section
one it contains an investigation over leadership requirement in accomplishment of organisational
goals using an example of Holiday Inn which maintains a chain of hotel throughout the world for
offering the accommodation and leisure related services. In section 2 it involve self audit
summary along with discussion of leadership and action plan for improving skills.
TASK 1
Covered in Infographics
TASK 2
Leadership is basically refers to the abilities of an individual to direct and guide the
employees in order to perform operation in a manner that support in accomplishment of
organisational goals and objectives (Huang and et. al., 2016). Leadership plays a crucial role for
an individual to perform its operations in effective manner and achieve better outcome by
directing the efforts of employees in effective manner. In order to evaluate my leadership skills
and capabilities I have decided to perform a self-appraisal which support me in determine my
strength and area to which I lacking behind so that appropriate actions can be taken for ensuring
development of my professional skills for a better career enhancement in future. This self-
appraisal is performed while making use of skill-audit.
Self-audit
Self-audit is basically refers to the process of evaluating the capability of an individual in
order to determine the strength or weaknesses along with area of improvement for better
performance (Crawford, Weber and Dennison, 2014). In order to perform my self-appraisal I
have used skill audit tool which is an essential process for recording as well as measuring the
skills of an individual. I have performed a skill audit by taking rating over my skills from my

colleagues in order to identify the area of self-improvement so that appropriate actions can be
undertaken. The skill-audit is mentioned below:
Skills & Capabilities Rating by me Rating by
others
Variance
Leadership skill Decision making 8 7 1
Good communicator 7 9 -2
Inspiring others 8 7 1
Management skills Problem solving 9 9 0
Time management 8 7 1
Proper delegation of
work
7 8 -1
The variance in this skill audit represent the actual state of a particular skills and
capability which I have and that I required to improve. The negative result in this variance
present the positive side or strength of mine and on other side the positive result shows my
weakness which I required to overcome. From this I have found that my leadership skills are not
much good though I am a good communicator but still my decision making is not good. The
reason behind this is that I usually adopt situation leadership style where as per the situation I
changed my managing system i.e. that when the operations are in flow I use to remain
democratic leaders where I let my team members bring their way of working to perform
operations in effective manner, but in case when the quality or outcome seems to be affected I
use to adopt autocratic leadership style. This ensures proper execution of work therefore I use to
take decision according to situations.
But according to my colleagues this leadership style is not appropriate as they get
confused about the manner in which they much operate their operations which in turn also
influence decision making (Kokt and Strydom, 2014). This is because I also don't be able to
sometimes influence others as my changing leadership style affects their work and in turn also
make it complicated to perform operations in effective manner. Despite of this, my management
skills are quite good as I am good at delegating work as per the capability of employees. In
addition to this I have also determined that my problem solving skills are also much good as I try

to evaluate each and every aspect of a particular situation and then working over it by critically
thinking to determine several course actions can be taken to overcome this issue so that
alternative can be evaluated to choose best possible option. But apart from this I have identified
that my time management skills are required to be improvement as it leads to delay in my work
which also affect the work performed by my team too. Hence it is required to be improved so
that I would be able to perform my operations in timely manner.
Discussion
Throughout my training within the hospitality sector I get assigned with several tasks
which I have to perform while leading my team mates in order to get most positive outcome. I
assigned with a task where a customer checked in his room but he was not happy with the hotel
as services was not as it is promise to him. So he loss his temper and get aggressive over the staff
members at that time I took a stand, interact with him and make him clam down while promising
to deliver the service as decided earlier. But from the skill audit I came to know that my
leadership style is not much good I decided to perform leadership for guiding my team mates by
considering a leadership theory which I have learnt through my course works. This is because
leadership theories basically consist of pre experimented understandings which help an
individual to get systematic applications of set of activities so that most positive outcome can be
gained ((Wang and Tsai, 2014). Then for dealing with the situation I decided to implement the
democratic leadership theory, the reason being that this supported me in evaluating each and
every aspect that could be consider for making the customer satisfied and provide them better
services. So for this I discussed it with team and asked them to provide their suggestion
regarding what are the major actions that we can perform in order to resolve this issues. These
ideas get discussed one by one and best alternative has been selected by me then I delegate the
roles and responsibility to my team mates and we become successful in making the customer
cool down by handling the situation and provide him with better services which also help us in
satisfying the customers.
Action Plan for leadership development
In order to over come the weakness that I have in term of leadership and management
skills I will prepare a action plan which support in providing a view regarding the set of activities
to be performed in order to improve my performance. I have decided to develop a SMART
action plan which support in setting up the targets along with the time duration in which it is to

be achieved. The main reason behind SMART action plan is that it is a more realistic and help in
formulating set of actions to be performed which are possible to be attained. Hence, it ensure the
accomplishment of goals behind the action plan of an individual (Wushe, Shenje and Ndlovu,
2014). The SMART action plan is mentioned below which I have preprepared as a blue print
regarding the set of actions to be undertaken for enhancing my leadership and management
skills.
Area of
improveme
nt
Specific Measurable Attainable Reliable Time
Bound
Leadership
skill
In order to
become a great
leaders I have to
improve my
decision
making skills as
it support in
directing the
team members
in right
direction toward
the achievement
of goals and be
able to keep
them satisfied
with work
The outcome of
this action plan
will be
measurable
from my
performance as
well as outcome
of the activities
performed by my
team members.
In addition to
this my
performance will
also be judged
by my superiors
in term of quality
of my performed
work.
In order attain
this
improvement of
decision making
skills, I have
decided to go
through several
online available
videos to learn
about the tactics
for taking better
decision.
Despite of this I
have also
decided to note
down all the
facts regarding a
particular
situation and
discuss with the
senior about
This
improvement of
decision making
skills will be
reliable to my
work as I
become able to
take correct
decisions that
support me
guiding my
followers in
effective
manner. Despite
of this it also
support me in
enhancing the
number of
opportunities for
future career
2
months

what I think to
be performed in
this for
formulating
effective
decisions.
growth.
I also require to
improve my
skills of
influencing
others. This is
because it plays
a crucial role in
making leaders
keep their
followers
motivated
toward their
work and
direction which
is being
suggested by
the leaders that
help in
performing the
operations in
more effective
manner.
The
improvement
within the
influential skill
will be
measurable with
the help of
visible unity
among the
employees as
well as method
which they adopt
in order to
perform their
operation i.e.
suggested by me.
In order to
attain
improvement
over my
influential skills
I have decided
to read the
novels or books
over the great
leaders so that I
would be able to
inspire and
motivate my
follower by
providing the
example of those
and learning the
tricks which
they use to keep
their employees
influential
toward them.
The influential
skills always
remains to be
reliable within
the hospitality
sector this is
because it
support in
influencing the
customers
regarding
purchasing or
availing of a
particular
services. In
addition to this it
also supported
me as a leaders
in directing my
followers for
performing a
particular set of
actions so that
the operations
can be
3
months

performed in
more systematic
and reliable
manner.
Management
skills
In order to
ensure that my
efforts be
directed in right
direction and
desired
outcomes are
being achieved,
I required to
improve my
time
management
skills. This will
support me in
ensuring that
my work
perform in
timely manner
as per the
provided
deadlines so
that the
adequate result
can be
achieved.
The outcome of
the efforts
toward
improvement of
time
management
skills will be
measured from
my actual
performance and
time taken by the
activities or task
which are
assigned to me.
This
performance will
be measured by
my seniors in a
manner that
whether I
become able to
perform my
operations as per
the given
deadlines.
For attaining
improvement
my
management
skills I have
decided to look
after the online
video to learn
different
strategies to be
adopted which
support in
managing the
time in effective
manner. Despite
of this I have
decided from
now I will create
a schedule for
each and every
activity that I
have decided to
perform along
with the time
taken by each
activity. This
help in ensuring
The time
management
skills is more
reliable for each
type of job role
as it support an
individual to
perform the
operations in
timely manner
which help in
brining the better
outcome.
4
months

that I perform
my tasks in
systematic
manner as per
the allotted time
period to
perform the
activities before
its deadlines.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it can be summarised that leadership and management
skills are consider to be the core ability of a person which support them in performing their job
role in efficient manner. Within the hospitality sector these skills are consider to be more crucial
as it support the employees in getting the right guidance over the actions to be taken in particular
situation. This is because the hospitality sector is consist of dynamic environment where changes
taken place much faster which further created issuers in term of management. Therefore,
effective leadership style plays a crucial role in overcoming such issues while ensuring smooth
flow of operations.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Online
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