Destination Management Strategy: A Comprehensive Leadership Reflection

This essay provides a reflection on destination management strategy, focusing on the author's leadership skills as assessed through the Competing Values Framework (CVF). The author compares two CVF test results, highlighting improvements in areas like innovation, broker roles, and facilitation due to enhanced communication skills and learning programs. A decline in mentorship is noted due to a focus on other areas. The reflection extends to the importance of understanding clientele needs, innovation, and stakeholder management in the hospitality industry. The author emphasizes the significance of considering employee motivation and community perception in shaping business practices and brand image, ultimately linking effective leadership to organizational success.

Destination Management Strategy Reflection
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)

Part A
Wheel Chart 1
Wheel Chart 2
A Competing Value Framework ( CVF) is one of the most effective tool in determining an
individual’s effectiveness as a leader. In order to understand my skill set as a leader, I
completed two CVF tests and compared the results obtained. From the first CVF test it is

evident that there are areas where I lack in leadership and those where I excel. It was also
evident that I was not sufficiently well rounded with regards to my skills as a leader. From the
first CVF ‘ chart it revealed that my skill set as an innovator and broker were extremely
inefficient as evident in the scores 4.2 and 3.7 respectively. The test also revealed that I was
successful in my roles as a director and mentor where I got 6.0 and 7.0 respectively. By
comparing the CVF results from my 1st and 2nd tests it is observable that there are areas of
positive and negative changes with regards to the score. The areas where one can witness a
positive change are in my roles as an innovator role where the score for the 1st CVF was 4.2 and
that for the 2nd CVF was 6.5, my role as a broker where the score for the 1st CVF was 3.7 and that
for the 2nd CVF was 6.5 and my role as a facilitator where the score for the 1st 5.2 and that for the
2nd one was 6.4. Other areas where I witnessed an increase in the CVF score was in my role as a
monitor where the CVF score for the 1st test was 5.5 while that for the second one was 6.2, my
role as a director where the CVF score for the first test was 6.0 and that for the second test was
6.2 and my role as a producer where the CVF score for the first test was 5.4 while that for the
second one was 6.4. The increase in my score was largely due to improvement of my skill set in
a number of areas most predominantly my communication skills and my innovation skills. The
increased performance was only in 7of the 8 roles that were being reviewed. One area where
there was a significant decline in performance was in my role as a mentor where the scores
declined from 7.0 in my first test to 5.4 in my second. The decline is largely due to my spending
of a lot of time building my performance in the other areas while neglecting my role as a mentor.
Communication is an effective tool for any successful leader as it helps to ensure that
he/she can be able to effectively understand the individuals that he is leading, inform them of his
vision and determine their needs (Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, and Thakor 2014). It is in cognizant

of this fact that I undertook efforts to improve my skills in communication. Through the
utilization of active listening principles, I have been able to effectively enhance my
communication skills. This has served to enhance my performance in a number of areas
especially my roles as a coordinator, broker and facilitator. This is largely due to the fact that
communication is an essential aspect of the three roles as the leader needs to be able to
understand the needs of workers for him to act on these roles.
One factor that significantly contributed to the positive changes that I experienced is
going through a learning program. The different learning programs enabled me develop insight
on effective communication skills and how it influences individuals interaction with the people
around him and his communication role. I also learnt about the importance of work coordination
and operational effectiveness in ensuring the improvement of an individual’s leadership
activities. My personal experiences also played a significant role in changing my performance as
a leader. Through my experiences I was able to learn about the importance of developing close
relations with individuals who are in the work place. This helps the leader in being able to better
understand the needs of the workers and act on them.
Part B
From the first blog a major lesson that emerges is the fact that the business practices of
an organization are significantly influenced by the clientele base. This is most evident in the
hospitality industry because it is built on the precept of catering to the needs of the clientele
base (Walker, and Walker 2016). Organizations that wish to succeed in the hospitality industry
the leader needs focus on meeting the needs of its customer base. This will serve to ensure that
the organization is in line with changes in the market due to shifts in customer tastes and
preferences (Barrows, and Powers 2008).

Another key complementary skill that a manager needs to have to succeed in the
hospitality industry is innovation. As the changes in customer tastes and preferences occur the
manager should be able to come up with new ideas that reflect the changes (Ottenbacher
2007). This helps to ensure that the manager is able to mould the operations of the organization
in a dynamic manner thereby making the organization highly competitive.
The CVF chart helps one to understand both internal and external factors of the organizations
operations by understanding the operations of the company’s internal environment, a manager is
able to make a determination on how various aspects of the organization relate to one another.
This information can be used to improve the effectiveness of the organization with regards to
performance. This is because the manager can utilize the information in the development of
systems that are able to best cater to the needs of the clients thereby ensuring the company is able
to effectively meet any emerging demands from the client base (Tepeci 1999). An effective
manager also requires in depth understanding of the various external factors of the workplace
environment and how these factors affect customer demand. This is largely due to the fact that
by understanding the different external environment factors of the business, a manager will be
able to make decisions sensitive to the stakeholders (Iqbal 2011). From the first blog I was able
to learn that even though a client is a major player in shaping business operations, the manager
has to also consider the needs of other categories of stakeholders.
Employees play a significant role in shaping the needs of the customer base and thus by
effectively catering to the varies needs of the employees like training, and salary, the manager
indirectly serves the interest of the customer base. Studies have demonstrated that employees
who are highly motivated in the hospitality industry tend to provide better services to their
customer base than those employees who are not (Mok, Sparks, and Kadampully 2013). This is

because of the fact that in the event that an employee is highly motivated by the organization,
he/she caters to the client’s needs with the goal of completely satisfying the customer (Victorino
et al. 2005).
On the other hand, employees who are highly under motivated work with the goal of just
completing the task that is assigned to them and usually do not have the satisfaction of the
customer in mind. This is evident in the fact that companies with low customer satisfaction levels
usually have under motivated employees. Other than the employees, the community surrounding
an organization is also a major stakeholder that the leader should consider. The local community
is key to organizational success as they shape its brand image. In doing so the community is able
to shape how the society perceives the organization (Kandampully, and Suhartanto 2000). When
the local community has a negative perception of a company because of its business practices,
the negative view is transferred to the society thereby affecting its brand image.

Bibliography
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