Professional Identity and Practices: Four Seasons Hotel

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PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND PRACTICES
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................2
OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION.........................................................................................3
LO1 & LO2 SELF-ASSESSMENT..................................................................................................4
BENEFITS OF ON-GOING PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HOW IT
ENHANCES THE CAREER PROSPECTS....................................................................................4
SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES REQUIRED BY EMPLOYER FOR THE ROLE OF GENERAL
MANAGER IN THE FOUR SEASONS HOTELS..........................................................................5
IMPORTANCE OF ON-GOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE ASSOCIATED
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN FOUR SEASON HOTELS.................................................................5
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF OWN ABILITIES, SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES FOR JOB ROLE OF
GENERAL MANAGER WITH USING TWO SELF-EVALUATION MODELS TO UNDERTAKE AN
AUDIT OF PERSONAL HARD AND SOFT SKILLS......................................................................6
REVIEWING THE RANGE OF DIFFERENT LEARNING THEORIES AND APPROACHES FOR
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT..................................................................7
CONSIDERATION OF THE BEST DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES TO ENHANCE YOUR OWN
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT..................................................................9
LO3 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN.............................................................................10
LO4 INDIVIDUAL ROLE PLAY AND REFLECTION.......................................................................12
PLANNING AND UNDERTAKING A JOB INTERVIEW FOR THE ROLE OF GENERAL MANAGER
IN FOUR SEASONS.............................................................................................................. 12
THE KEY STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF APPLIED INTERVIEW PROCESS......................13
EVALUATING JOB INTERVIEW PROCESS AND CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO
OVERCOME.........................................................................................................................13
ASSESSING OWN ABILITIES DURING THE INTERVIEW PROCESS.........................................14
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 15
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 16
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INTRODUCTION
For gaining success in a competitive world, it is very important for an individual to work on
their capabilities and skills. To survive and grow in the market every individual should try to
work on their personal and professional skills. In the context of ‘Four Season,' this
assignment will include various aspects that are necessary for the development of personal
and professional competencies. It will also discuss the aspects that should be used for
enhancing the professional identity and self-directed learning. For designing an effective
development plan personal skills and competencies will also be evaluated for achieving
success for the specific job role. Lastly, transferable skills and range of service industry will
be determined for the role of general manager at "Four Seasons Hotel".
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OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION
Four Season Hotel is an international luxury hospitality company known as Four Season
hotels and resorts. This Hospitality Company is headquartered at Canada, Toronto and
Ontario operating more than 100 hotels all over the world. The Four Season's first hotel was
established in 1961, till then the company made various innovations in their services to raise
their standards. This hospitality company aims at providing the experience of exceptional
quality to its customers. Their objective is to manage efficiently the working of their hotels,
resort and residence club. They also aim at providing personal services to their customers so
that they maintain their world's luxury hospitality company's image.
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LO1 & LO2 SELF-ASSESSMENT
BENEFITS OF ON-GOING PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND HOW IT ENHANCES THE CAREER PROSPECTS
On-going personal and professional development plays an important role in the growth of
an individual. By working on self-improvement both personal and professional life is
satisfied. In four Season hotel, employees are supported to work on their skills so that they
could bring change in the working of the industry (Amber, 2019). By providing on-going
professional skills, Four Season hotel tries to know their required skills, abilities, and
knowledge so that they could design an effective development plan for the employees. The
company does so as they want to know the competencies and required skills present within
the employees (Corinne, 2013). Some of the benefits of on-going professional and personal
development for an employer are:
 Build confidence and credibility: If the company tries to work for the growth and
development of the employees, they feel higher credibility and gain confidence
towards the company (Amber, 2019).
 Increase retention rate: By encouraging employees for their personal growth and
development, the company tries to build an effective relationship with the
employees (Corinne, 2013). This gesture will make employees loyal and satisfied.
 Succession planning: The Company also tries to make employees ready for new job
roles by giving them knowledge about various skills.
The benefits of on-going personal and professional development to the employee are:
 Maintain engagement: By offering professional development to employees, their
engagement rate will also increase (Ryan, 2019). By engaging, the employees with
their knowledge about various skills and technology will also improve.
 Increase productivity and satisfaction: By proving on-going training to the
employees gain confidence and skills and so feel highly satisfied with their job. Also
making the employees satisfied their productivity increases naturally (Alison, 2019).
 Discover new talents: By managers spending time with the employees will help
them in discovering new talent and skills within them (Ryan, 2019). The company
will also able to know the weaknesses of each employee closely.
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SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES REQUIRED BY EMPLOYER FOR THE ROLE OF
GENERAL MANAGER IN THE FOUR SEASONS HOTELS
Having the required skills and competencies within the employee will help the company
maintain good relations with the customers, better customer services and improved
interaction among the team members. To develop a good career, every manager should
possess skills and creative mind. The main role of the general manager of a company is to
look after the daily operations of the organization and ensure that the strategies are
implemented on time by the employees (John, 2019). Therefore to effectively implement
the duties, a general manager of the company should possess the following skills:
 Interpersonal skills: General Manager should know how to deal with the internal
culture and support them so that it encourages the employee for professional
development (Jemma, 2018).
 Leadership skills: General Manager should know how to lead the entire team and
their workings (Andrall, 1989).
 Strategic planning skills: The General Manager is responsible for ensuring proper
implementation of plans in an organization (Jemma, 2018).
 Financial planning skills: Financial plans should be made keeping in mind the future
requirement of the company (Andrall, 1989). The Manager should analyse the
situation in such a way that it does not lead to wastage of money.
IMPORTANCE OF ON-GOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE
ASSOCIATED PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN FOUR SEASON HOTELS
An individual should regularly try to improve their skills and competencies to deliver the
best to the organization. By providing on-going professional development to the employees
ensure an increase in competency level in their professional life (CPD, 2014). Developing a
good professional development plan ensures benefits to the individual as well as to the
employers. Professional skills should be such that it enables the employees to perform their
responsibilities and duties well in their sector. Continuous professional development is
important because:
 It ensures to maintain the capabilities needed by the employees with the other
members (CPD, 2014).
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 It helps in enhancing the knowledge and skills needed to deliver professional services
to clients (CPD, 2014).
 It helps in knowing whether our knowledge is relevant to the required skills.
 Helps in making a meaningful contribution to the organization.
 Helps an employee to willingly work for the organization and have an interest in the
working (CPD, 2014).
 Helps in gaining understanding about the professional scenario of the business (AHA,
2017).
 Continuous professional development also contributed towards the improved
quality of life, property and environment.
 It helped in bringing up advance technology relating to the professional role of the
organization (AHA, 2017).
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF OWN ABILITIES, SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
FOR JOB ROLE OF GENERAL MANAGER WITH USING TWO SELF-
EVALUATION MODELS TO UNDERTAKE AN AUDIT OF PERSONAL HARD AND
SOFT SKILLS
Developing good personal and professional skills enables an individual to evaluate its
competency in the working scenario. Knowing own abilities, knowledge, talent and skills will
allow an individual to efficiently work for the organization.
To analyse my skills and competencies for the role of general manager, I have used a Johari
window model and SWOT analysis of own self. These models will help me evaluate my
abilities and skills.
Self- assessment through Johari Window:
1. KNOWN BY SELF(open area) 2. UNKNOWN BY SELF (Blind area)
My strength is I possess good
communication skills, have the ability to
convince customers and always curious to
increase my knowledge (Quoria, 2014).
Though I still need to work on my time
management skills and gain knowledge of
There are some characteristics of which I
was not aware of earlier. These are I am
very emotional and gets attached to people
quickly. I also got know that I am good at
influencing people and I am trustworthy.
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technologies coming up in the market.
3. Self-disclosure (Hidden area) 4. Shared discovery (Unknown self)
I have a keen interest in sketching and
singing. And the one thing I hate about
myself is I interpret things very fast which
at times prove wrong to me.
From my past knowledge and skills, I got to
know that I possess good problem-solving
skills (Quoria, 2014).
Self-assessment through SWOT analysis:
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
 Good communication skill
 Loyal towards the organization
 Creative thinker and always come up
with new ideas
 Always keen to gain knowledge
 Possess good problem-solving skills
 Lack of time management
 Lack of technical knowledge
 Emotionally weak
OPPORTUNITY THREAT
 Continuous personal and professional
development
 Promotion in the company
 Changing technology
 Increased competition
REVIEWING THE RANGE OF DIFFERENT LEARNING THEORIES AND
APPROACHES FOR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Learning new skills and developing existing skills is an important issue for the manager of
the company. By knowing personal strength, weakness and ability one can easily improve
their position in the company. Learning is a continuous process needed to be undertaken for
developing personal and professional skills. I should adopt a self-managed learning
approach to learn new skills and requirement of the company. The key theories and
approaches to self-managed learning are:
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BEHAVIOURISM
This theory focuses on learning through behaviour. Here behaviour of the learner is
controlled by external stimuli and response acquired from that behaviour (James, 2012).
This theory works on a reward-punishment basis.
COGNITIVISM
This theory is based on the behaviour that the human process after thinking on the
particular situation. Human reacts according to the information they receive rather than
reacting on the stimuli (Ashley, 2017). This theory is implemented when learner tries to
achieve and understand information processing.
CONSTRUCTIVISM
This theory states that managers develop their perspective based on their individual
experiences and knowledge (Ashley, 2017). And since everyone has their way of gaining
knowledge learning is different for each employee in an organization.
EXPERIENTIALISM
Here, learning takes place through different experiences a personal gain. This concept can
be seen in Kolb's Reflective model that includes four stages:
 Concrete Experience: Here, an individual comes across a new experience and
interpret the already existing experience (Saul, 2017).
 Reflective observation of the new experience: At this stage, individual reflect on the
new experiences they have gained.
Figure 1 KOLB'S EXPERIMENTAL LEARNING CYCLE
[Source- Medium, 2018]
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 Abstract conceptualization: Here, individual gain knowledge, information and
learning by evaluating the experiences they had (Saul, 2017).
 Active experimentation: Plans are made according to their experiences and learning.
CONSIDERATION OF THE BEST DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES TO ENHANCE
YOUR OWN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
By evaluating and analyzing my strength and weaknesses, I have come to know what are my
skills and abilities. I have applied models such as SWOT analysis and Johari window through
which I clearly understood the best development approach for the post of general manager
in Four Season Hotels (EDUCBA, 2019). Assessment of own abilities and competencies had
made me understand the importance of them in a professional career.
Experimentalism is more appropriate as compared to constructivism and behaviorism since
a person gains more knowledge and skills through its own experiences. This approach
enhances the personal skills and helps in developing knowledge. It also helps in gaining new
skills which can be applied further in various real-life works.
Good problem-solving skills have been enhanced in me through the evaluation of personal
competencies and skills. Further, I was able to apply Kolb's experiential model of learning
that helped me gain knowledge and improved my skills (EDUCBA, 2019). This helped me in
personal and professional development and led me to achieve success in my job.
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LO3 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
By formulating a professional development plan, I could develop and build the required
skills and competencies that would enable me to comply with the rapidly changing and
competitive business world. By using SMART targets, I could make a more comprehensive
plan to develop my professional skills and competencies (MacLeod, 2012). The professional
development plan would ensure me to continuously learning and developing my
competencies to survive in the current competitive market.
Current Skills and
Competencies used in
the personal and
professional plan
Goals Personal /
Professional
Development Plan
ACTIVITY (Use SMART
targets)
Indicate how you
have monitored your
progress,
underpinning
learning and
development theory
Evaluate the
effectiveness of your
development plan
SHORT TERM GOALS (3 MONTHS)
Time management skills
Build work relationships
To develop time
management skills within
the next 2 months i.e. till
30th September for
performing my
professional as well as
personal responsibilities.
By using the
constructivism theory,
personal planning and
observation, the time-
chart or schedule will
be prepared and
strictly followed.
(Graves and Epstein,
2011)
This would enable me to
perform all my
professional and personal
responsibilities at the
right time that will result
in improved productivity.
To be able to control my
anger and emotions
while communicating and
controlling my team
members until the end of
31st October through
meditation.
The learning theory of
constructivism will be
followed as it involves
the abstraction and
self-regulation that
would enable me to
control my emotions
and support in better
anger and stress
management.
Through proper anger
management, I will
effectively deal with bad
situations and challenges
during my job.
Communication skills To be able to share my
opinions and ideas with
the other people
effectively with exact
meaning and being able
to effectively
communicate with other
people within the next 3
months.
The experientialism
theory would support
me in identifying my
key weaknesses while
communicating with
other people and
developing an
effective plan to
enhance my
This would support me in
increasing my strength
and would enable me to
communicate my opinions
and ideas to the superiors
as well as my
subordinates effectively.
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communication skills.
MEDIUM TERM GOALS (6 MONTHS)
Learn new languages To learn Spanish and
French till December end
from the reputed
institute to deliver
enhanced services to the
customers.
By following the
cognitivist theory, I
will focus on learning
new languages from
other people.
This would support me in
understanding the needs
and demand of foreign
customers and support in
delivering better
customers services and
gaining higher customer
satisfaction.
Technical knowledge To gain technical
knowledge to easily
operate the computer
and other basic technical
tools till the end of
November end by joining
coaching.
Here, the
constructivism
learning theory could
be applied to learn
new knowledge
through self-
regulation. (Graves
and Epstein, 2011)
Through gaining technical
knowledge, I would be
able to perform my tasks
effectively without
waiting for the help of
others.
develop management
skills
To be able to manage all
the aspects of the hotel
effectively till the end of
December 2019.
By using
experimentalism
learning theory I
would be able to learn
from my past
performances and
develop effective
managerial skills.
By developing managerial
skills, I would be able to
perform my roles and
responsibilities more
effectively and manage
the workforce with
minimum limitations.
LONG TERM GOALS (1YEAR)
Leadership abilities
To be able to encourage,
motivate and inspire my
team members to
contribute positively to
the growth of the hotel
within a year.
The experientialism
learning theory would
enable me to develop
my skills and abilities
as a leader by learning
through my personal
experiences.
By developing leadership
qualities, I can effective
built a positive work
environment within my
hotel and inspire my team
members to perform
enthusiastically to achieve
higher growth and the
ultimate aims of the
hotel.
The above professional development plan would empower me to improve my strengths and
increase my capabilities to comply with the current competitive business environment. By
following this plan I would be able to perform all my obligations and responsibilities
effectively as a general manager at the four-season hotel.
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