Personal and Professional Development in Hilton Hotel

This document discusses the importance of personal and professional development in Hilton Hotel. It explores different approaches to self-managed learning, encourages lifelong learning, and evaluates the benefits of self-managed learning at individual and organizational levels. It also provides guidance on implementing a development plan and undertaking planned activities.

PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Assessing different approaches to self-managed learning.....................................................1
1.2 Encouraging lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts by suggesting
different ways..............................................................................................................................2
1.3 Evaluation of benefits of self-managed learning at individual and organisational level.......4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Implementing the development plan through discussing required processes and activities. 5
3.2 Undertaking and documenting planned development activities............................................6
3.3 Critical reflection on own learning against development plan’s aim and objectives............8
3.4 Updating development plan on the basis of assessment and feedback..................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Resolving a work based problem.........................................................................................11
4.2 Different appropriate styles of communication at various levels........................................11
4.3 Assessing the effective time management strategies with their use....................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
In present era, one of the most important tasks of organisations is to nurture and retain
talent management which is done through providing them personal development opportunities.
These can include anything from providing leadership training to building a new skill which
results in encouraging an employee to perform in a better and more efficient way which
increases the productivity and so as profits of business (Personal Development, 2018).
Professional development is all about improving an individual’s or team’s existing skill,
knowledge and abilities that are required to be there to perform current or future goals. The firm
chosen for present study is Hilton Hotel, UK with reference to which many concepts related to
personal and professional development (PPD) will be discussed. There will be discussion on
understanding the way in which self-managed learning can lead to increase the lifelong learning
of employees. Further, the way own personal and professional development plan can be
implemented and review on continuous basis will be discussed. Along with that, the way an
employee can acquire the interpersonal and transferrable skills will be studied here.
TASK 2
1.1 Assessing different approaches to self-managed learning
Self-managed learning can be termed as a way by which individuals or teams at
workplace learn different things in distinct ways. It can also be referred as setting of goals for
learning after assessing the purpose for which it has to be provided so that set targets can be
effectually achieved. Some of the approaches to self-managed learning which are best suitable
for the employees of Hilton Hotel are:
 Attending various seminars and conferences – If hotel will organise seminars and
conferences for grooming the personality of employees in terms of raising their skills and
knowledge, this will help in providing them a great experience which they can further use
in present and future activities that they are assigned with. People in firm get opportunity
to show their knowledge to others that ends up in gaining new learning with the help of
seminars and conferences (Tattum and Tattum, 2017). Further, they will become
confident enough to communicate in terms of presenting and speaking skills that are
required being working in hospitality industry.
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 Use of internet sources – Internet now-a-days is the biggest source of learnings as
different published online articles by many authors help individuals at workplace to learn
about various concepts related to effective management. These learnings gained from
internet can be easily applied by individuals at workplace and so, make them confident
enough to deal with challenges and perform assigned tasks effectually. Through internet,
people working in Hilton hotel can gain unlimited information that enhances their self-
learning (Whitehall and et.al., 2018).
 Active participation on social networking sites – People in today’s era are highly active
on social media like on networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, My Year Book, etc.
A lot of time every day is spent by individuals on these sites which enhances their
knowledge regarding many concepts and areas that help them to increase their
effectiveness at workplace too (Faris, 2018). On these sites, there are different stories
shared related to successful leaders and entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg which
influence them to apply same in their working which improved their learning as well as
motivation to perform better.
1.2 Encouraging lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts by suggesting different
ways
When an individual’s learning gets enhanced on continuous basis in personal and
professional contexts, it results in lifelong learning. There are different ways by which lifelong
learning of individuals in Hilton hotel can be encouraged personally as well as at organisational
level. Some of these are like:
 Self-evaluation through SWOT analysis – One of the most common and effective ways
by which lifelong learning of individuals at individual and organisational can be
encouraged is through conducting SWOT analysis which will help the person to get
aware with his strengths and weaknesses which he can enjoy and overcome from
respectively (Turpin and Shier, 2017). Further, individuals come to know about many
opportunities which can be grabbed by them as well as threats for which they can make
prior plans to deal with.
 Using Kolb’s learning model – Using Kolb’s model of learning is one of the best ways to
encourage lifelong learning of individuals at personal and professional level both. This
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model is a four state cycle of learning which is more of concerned with internal cognitive
processes of the learner (Kolb's Learning Cycle, 2015).
Figure 1: Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle
(Source: Kolb’s Learning Cycle, 2015)
The first stage is ‘concrete experience’ which is a new situation for an individual that he
encounters for the first time and gains a lot of experiences personally as well as at work.
Second is the ‘reflective observation’ stage in which individual realises that what he has
done and experienced. In this phase, he assesses that whether there is any inconsistency
in between his experience and understanding. In the third phase i.e. ‘abstract
conceptualization’, individual becomes able to give rise to a new idea or to improve the
existing one by generating a hypothesis from what he has experienced (Kolb's Learning
Cycle, 2015). Fourth phase i.e. ‘active experimentation’ is all about applying the learning
or experience gained to check the results by testing adopted hypothesis. Thus, in case if
experience will challenge the hypothesis rather supporting it, corrective measures will be
taken by the individual. In this way, lifelong learning of individual get encouraged in
personal and professional context (Arell-Sundberg and et.al., 2017).
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 Observation and monitoring – If managers in Hilton hotel will observe and monitor the
working style of employees by assessing the way in which they are performing their
tasks, they will become able to delegate the tasks accordingly and so, work will get
distributed effectively among workers. This will enhance the learning of managers which
would ultimately result in increasing their learning to lead and manage people that will
further help in encouraging their lifelong learning at both; personal and professional level
(Tang, 2017).
1.3 Evaluation of benefits of self-managed learning at individual and organisational level
Self-managed learning proves to be highly beneficial for both individuals and
organisation as with same, efficiency of employees to perform assigned tasks gets improved and
so, productivity of business raises as well. Some of the benefits of self-managed learning at
individual and organisational level in Hilton hotel are stated as below:
Benefits of self-managed learning to individuals
 Improved communication – Self-managed learning leads employees to update their
current proficiencies and knowledge as well as confidence (Johnson, Robertson and
Cooper, 2018). Through attending various conferences, seminars as well as reading books
and articles, communication of employees gets improved that is one of the most
important skills being working in hospitality industry as they need to directly interact
with customers.
 Spirit of teamwork – Also, by working in workshops within a team or attending
conferences of seminars on teamwork, employees get aware with the importance and
benefits of working together and with coordination (Zervas, Proserpio and Byers, 2017).
Therefore, spirit to work in teams gets improved through self-managed learning which
increases the efficiency of employees along with willingness to work.
 Presentation skill – Further, employees will become capable enough to present
themselves in front of others as with self-managed learning. Thus, to interact with their
senior authorities like managers and other directors along with customers of Hilton hotel
becomes easy for employees as their confidence increases (Youn, Kim and Song, 2017).
Benefits of self-managed learning to organisation
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 Better relationships – The major benefit that Hilton hotel will get through self-managed
learning is to maintain a positive and strong relationship in between employees as their
skills like teamwork gets improved through same.
 Improved culture – Another benefit that hotel will gain is of organisational culture that
will get improved through self-managed learning as when employees start working with
each other with high coordination without any conflicts and with problem solving skills,
it creates a positive environment at workplace (Hofmann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2017).
 Innovation and creativity – Self-managed learning leads to introduce new ideas and
listening to the opinions of employees, decisions are made on the basis of understanding
and expectations of business and thus, it results in bringing innovation and creativity in
work which is if appreciated by end users, results in bringing high profits and growth in
organisation (Chan and et.al., 2017).
TASK 3
3.1 Implementing the development plan through discussing required processes and activities
A development plan is made with an aim or objective to improve the personal and
professional skills and knowledge of employees. PPD for Thabo John Maesela, for the position
of Finance Manager in above task has to be implemented which requires specific processes and
activities that are stated as below:
 SWOT analysis – To conduct SWOT analysis would prove to be the best to implement
development plan as with this, individual will come to know about his strengths to be
improved, weaknesses to overcome, opportunities to grab and making strategies to get
protected against threats (Ashton, 2018).
 Developing the personal strategy for areas to be improved – After assessing the areas
which require improvement, personal strategy will be developed by listing down all the
skills and points in which growth is to be brought. On the basis of same, a strategy will be
developed in which the action will be listed out which may involve activities like for
improving the listening skills, attending seminars and conferences will do the best with
sitting for long hours and hearing what the person in front is saying on a specific topic
(Boella, 2017). Further, to enhance the team spirit, organizing workshops and role plays
will be effective as well as for improving the presentation skills of individual, using
online courses to raise the analytical ability will work. Also, to increase the professional
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knowledge, if Thabo John Maesela will study technical and professional journals, online
articles and books on relevant subject matter, it will help a lot. Being coached by an
experienced supervisor or colleague as well as attending necessary training programs in
Hilton hotel will prove to be helpful for the employee (Nieves and Diaz-Meneses, 2018).
 Setting short and long term objectives – After making personal strategies, short and long
term objectives will be set by the individual that are later combined on which he has to
work in order to improve the same to desired level.
 Designing the chart – Finally, the chart of development activities will be prepared in
which all the areas that to be amended will be listed along with specific deadlines and
timeframes for same within which the set target has to be achieved (Baradarani and Kilic,
2018).
3.2 Undertaking and documenting planned development activities
The below mentioned table is all about my objectives being at position of Finance
Manager in Hilton hotel that are to be achieved by improving respective skills and competencies
identified in PPD with their specific deadlines. Also, the evaluation of skills to be improved
along with taking feedback for same will be included here.
Objectives to
achieve
Skills and
competencies
to improve
Self-
assessment
(Poor or
average)
Timeframe/
deadline
Activities
conducted to
improve the
skills
Feedback
and
evaluation
(out of 10)
To have
effective
communication
Listening skill Poor Within a
period of 4
months
Attended
seminars and
conferences
Took
guidance
from a good
coach
Worked on
negotiation
skill
6/10
6

To increase
professional
knowledge
Risk taking
ability
Average 6 months Handled
complex
projects
Gathered
knowledge
about
competition
in market
(Tattum and
Tattum,
2017)
Selected
effective and
talented
members in
team. Thus
by improving
the
professional
knowledge
this will be
helping me to
increase my
risk taking
skills as well
as I could be
able to
become
confident
enough.
7/10
To manage my Presentation Good 2 months Prepared 8/10
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team work skill presentations
based on
topics to be
discussed
Provided
continuous
monitoring
and
supervision to
team
Organising
required
training
sessions for
them
(Whitehall
and et.al.,
2018)
To make
employee’s
concepts clear
Professional
knowledge
Good 4 months Read many
books,
journals and
articles on
online
sources
Attended
meetings with
Finance
controller and
HOD
9/10
To enhance the
profits of hotel
Teamwork Poor 5 months Attended
workshops
6/10
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with other
members
Participated
in role plays
and other
management
activities
(Faris, 2018)
3.3 Critical reflection on own learning against development plan’s aim and objectives
While designing a development plan, different aims and objectives are set by the
individual to achieve the same for improving his/her level of performance. On the basis of these
aims and objectives, short and long term goals are developed and accordingly, learning for same
is developed. This learning plays a significant role in achieving the set targets of development
plan as well as in improving weak areas through suitable strategies. In case of objectives are not
clear, to improve the weak areas is not possible (Turpin and Shier, 2017). The personal and
professional development plan developed for me i.e. for Finance Manager in Hilton hotel helped
me a lot in overcoming my weaknesses and strengthening the strong areas. It proved to be
helpful for me achieve my objectives being at the position of Finance Manager. From my
supervisors, I got the feedback that I have improved a lot in terms of my presentation skills and
professional knowledge as well as they appreciated me for the same. However, there are still
some areas left which are not improved to the desired level like risk taking ability, listening as
well as team work skills and so, I still need to adopt suitable strategies so that they can be
improved and set goals will be achieved within set time duration (Arell-Sundberg and et.al.,
2017). This will further motivate me to follow my plan and perform tasks with highest level of
efficiency.
3.4 Updating development plan on the basis of assessment and feedback
Development plan for Finance Manager in Hilton hotel will be updated on the basis of
assessment and feedback gained in above task i.e. based on reflection on own learning against
aim and objectives of PPD.
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Skills and
competencies
still require
improvement
Current
level (out of
10)
Desired level
of
proficiency
Activities to
be
performed
to improve
the skills
Time
duration to
achieve the
target
Feedback
and
evaluation
Listening skill 6/10 9 By listening
both the
parties
carefully in
case if any
conflict
arises i.e.
through
effective
negotiation
3 months By observing
the work
environment
and rate of
chaos and
confusion in
department
(Tang, 2017)
Risk taking
ability
7/10 10 By handling
the complex
projects and
supervising
team for
same with
making them
clear too
about goals
to be
achieved
4 months By checking
the level of
sales and
profits as
well as
growth of
business
against
competition
Teamwork 6/10 9 Through
active
participation
in the
execution of
3 months By assessing
the level of
coordination
among
members and
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projects with
team and
guiding them
well in case
if deviations
are found
effectiveness
and quality
of output
gained
(Johnson,
Robertson
and Cooper,
2018)
Overall, it can be said that being the finance manager in Hilton hotel, I still require three
skills to be improved which are effective listening, risk taking ability and teamwork within the
duration of maximum six months through adopting different suitable strategies like handling
complex projects, working on negotiation skill and actively participating with team to
accomplish the set targets (Zervas, Proserpio and Byers, 2017). For evaluating the same, I will
take the feedback of own performance in terms of assessing the workplace environment, rate of
growth, sales and profits of business as well as quality of results gained.
TASK 4
4.1 Resolving a work based problem
Main workplace issue which Hilton hotel is facing is related employee turnover by which
its operations as well as quality of services are getting affected. For the purpose of resolving this
work based problem, various measures can be taken among which the most suitable are:
 Providing performance based rewards and incentives – To retain employees for longer
span of time, method of rewarding would prove to be the best for Hilton hotel as with
same, their motivation will get improved and so, they would work with higher efficiency.
Based on the need and performance of employees, firm has to decide that whether they
will get satisfied with monetary rewards (bonus, salary appraisal, etc.) or non-monetary
(recognition, promotion, etc.) and provide the same accordingly (Youn, Kim and Song,
2017). This will result in increasing confidence, willingness to work and loyalty of
employees towards firm which will make them stay with organization in longer run.
Their stay with motivation will enhance the productivity and thus, profits of business.
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 Delegating the work based on employee’s interest – Further, many employees are
leaving Hilton hotel due to high workload which is common in hospitality industry. If
managers will assign the roles and responsibilities to staff as per their interests and
specialization, this will make their work easy to be performed and this is too with high
efficiency. Also, equality in allocation of work should be there as if an employee gets
more tasks to complete in comparison to others, his level of motivation decreases and he
gets the feeling of biased management and becomes frustrated which leads him to leave
the organization due to high dissatisfaction (Hofmann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2017).
Thus, proper allocation of work will help Hilton hotel to retain staff in the longer run.
4.2 Different appropriate styles of communication at various levels
In an organisation, there are three levels of management i.e. strategic, tactical and
operational. At all levels, communication takes place through different ways and especially in
hotel industry, flow of information has an important role in the growth and success of business.
In order to maintain a healthy working environment and gain support of staff in making
important decisions with their fruitful suggestions, clarity in communication is highly crucial
(Chan and et.al., 2017). For communicating at different levels in Hilton hotel, appropriate styles
that can be used are:
Figure 2: Levels of Management
 Managerial/higher level – At higher level of management in Hilton hotel, e-mails and
meetings are the appropriate ways to communicate any important information. E-mails
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Strategic/Higher
Level
Tactical/Middle
Level
Operational/Lower
Level

are considered to be the fast and efficient medium to communicate as well as records the
interaction. Further, through e-mails, company can easily save its time and cost and
transfer any kind of information in the form of either PDF or word/excel file to a large
number of people at a time (Ashton, 2018). Meetings are supposed to be best for
communication in between higher authorities like Board of Directors, CEO, Managing
Director, Department Managers, etc. as these are mainly confidential and need to be done
in a separate and safe place.
 Tactical/middle level – At this level of management in Hilton hotel, employees sitting at
different locations as firm is operating in many nations, can communicate with the help
of video conferencing as this will make it easy for them to get or transfer any kind of
information and understand the issues with suggesting solutions for same by having face
to face interaction. With the help of video cameras and internet technology, meetings and
conferences can be easily organised with staff members at distant locations that will
prove to be highly inexpensive as well as effective (Boella, 2017). Thus, to have virtual
face –to-face interaction with employees, video conferencing proves to be the best at
middle level of management.
 Operational/lower level – With the help of bulletin and notice boards, any important
information can be communicated at the operational level i.e. to workers. At this level,
flow of information is done with respect to either change in policies or work practices. It
is a one way communication but proves to be effective to communicate with staff
working at lower level.
4.3 Assessing the effective time management strategies with their use
This is significant to have proper time management for Hilton hotel and its staff being
operating in the hospitality industry where customer’s decision to avail products and services
gets highly influenced (Nieves and Diaz-Meneses, 2018). With proper management of time in all
work activities, organization can have effectual functioning of operations as well as timely
delivery of services and products. Hilton hotel is good at meeting the set deadlines and in
managing resources effectively but still, some improvement in the time of delivery of services is
required which can be done through following ways:
 Prioritizing – A to-do list by the managers can be prepared as per the priority of
completing tasks so that those which are more important can be performed prior. As the
13

complete list is full of urgent works to be completed, on the basis of their priority, these
will be accomplished in a precise manner rather doing those which are less urgent and
have late deadline (Madsen, 2018). Based on the needs of customers and events
conducted in Hilton hotel, this prioritization will be done that would help in reducing the
stress of employees as they will get the clarity of what exactly has to be done at first.
Thus, chances of confusion and chaos will be decreased as well that will save the time
and targets will be attained within set deadlines. Through using priority matrix also,
prioritisation of tasks can be set as it is a software application which make the tasks
arranged based on their urgency and importance (Baradarani and Kilic, 2018).
 Scheduling – This is another time management strategy by which issue in delay in
services can be resolved by the staff in Hilton hotel. Scheduling refers to the arranging,
controlling and improving the tasks by making a fixed schedule to complete all and
allotting specific time duration for each in which the respective work has to be
completed. It proves to be highly helpful for adding contingency time in case if any
uncertain or unexpected situation arises by which the complete process could get
affected. Under the same, manager can assign specific roles and responsibilities to staff
based on their interest and expertise. Here, manager will have to provide suitable
guidelines to the staff to follow so that goals will be achieved timely and effectively
(Madsen, 2018). This will help the organization to have improved quality of services.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that to keep employee’s skills, abilities and
knowledge updated is crucial for organisations in today’s business environment to retain their
talent and enjoy the benefits of same in long run with gaining competitive edge over other rivalry
firms. It has been assessed that Hilton hotel can retain its human resources by developing them
personally and professionally which can be done through creating growth plans, building in
‘growth time’ and offering innovative learning experiences. Also, by creating a culture of
learning at workplace and training managers to become a good mentors, employees can be
effectually developed that will enhance their motivation as well as morale and thus, they will
perform their duties and responsibilities in an effectual way. It can be articulated that personal
and professional development of employees improves the performance at organisational level as
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productivity and profits of business increase through same that results in making the firm stable
and strong in market with having ability to deal with the existing rivalry effectually.
15

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basic counselling skills training (Doctoral dissertation).
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Turpin, A. and Shier, M.L., 2017. Peer Support and Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Benefits
and Barriers for Intra-Personal Development in Longer-Term Treatment
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Youn, H., Kim, J.H. and Song, H., 2017. The leading causes and consequences of citizenship
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Zervas, G., Proserpio, D. and Byers, J.W., 2017. The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating the
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