Personal Identity and Practice Report: Development and Skills Analysis

This report focuses on personal identity and professional practice, emphasizing the importance of ongoing professional development and self-directed learning within the context of Hilton Hotels. The report assesses the individual's skills, competencies, and various learning and development approaches, including VAK, Honey and Mumford, and Pavlov's theory, and then provides a detailed personal development plan to enhance skills within a specific work-related context, such as a receptionist role. It also includes a SWOT analysis, a skills audit questionnaire, and a review of employer expectations and benefits of ongoing professional development. The report highlights key skills like communication, leadership, teamwork, and decision-making, and concludes with an analysis of strengths and weaknesses based on a simulated interview process.

PERSONAL IDENTITY
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
P1 The benefits of ongoing professional development...............................................................2
P2 Employer Expectations..........................................................................................................3
P3 Own skills and competencies.................................................................................................4
P4 Learning theories and approaches used for professional and personal development............5
P5 Development plan for enhancing the skills and core competencies within specific work
related context.............................................................................................................................6
P6 Job interview for suitable service industry role ....................................................................8
P7 Reviewing the key strength as well as weakness of an applied interview process ...............9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
It is important for an individual to have a personal and professional set of skills in order
to achieve growth and development. The below report showcases the importance of ongoing
professional development and self-directed learning. It provides and explanation of why personal
and professional skills are important in order to achieve set growth and advantages for an
individual. The chosen organisation for the report is Hilton Hotels. The hotel is situated in Park
Lane, London, United Kingdom. The report assesses one's own skills, competences, different
learning and development approaches. A professional development plan is made with a specific
work context. The report generates an important personal development plan in order to evaluate
the importance of an individuals set skills and requirements (Olsen, 2015). Along with it, the
report reviews the range of theories and approaches used for professional and personal
development.
MAIN BODY
P1 The benefits of ongoing professional development
Below mentioned are the key benefits of ongoing professional development within Hilton
Hotels: Discovers new talent: Ongoing professional development can help the organisation in
discovering new talents. After hiring, the Hilton Hotel does not get a chance to
understand its employees talents (Patton, Parker and Tannehill, 2015). The ongoing
professional development allows the organisation to discover new employee talent and
maintain a strong connection with the employees which are talented and growth-oriented Maintains Engagement: It helps Hilton hotels to maintain engagement with its
employees which are working for the organisation. Maintaining the engagement allows
the organisation to achieve set goals and create better connection with its employees. It is
one of the most effective advantages where the management of Hilton Hotels manages
strong advantage within its employee management and retention activities. Gaining a competitive edge: A better competitive edge allows the organisation to gain a
better market position. It is important for the organisation to manage its position in that
market to achieve development and growth. It is important for the organisation to gain a
competitive advantage within the organisation scenario and ongoing professional
development helps the organisation in that.
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 Increasing productivity and Satisfaction: The ongoing professional development allows
the organisation to increase its productivity and development. Also, it helps them to gain
better resources in order to achieve and develop their products and services accordingly.
The ongoing development is the core need for an organisation to increase its employee
satisfaction and gains (Trorey and Cullingford, 2017). Attracting and Retaining Talent: Hilton hotels tend to attract and retain talents from the
help of these activities within the environment of the hotel. It is important for the
organisation to make use of ongoing development activities in order to ensure and retain
growth and development within its environment.
 Fighting Stagnation: It helps the hotel to fight stagnation within its environment.
Stagnation slows the growth of the employees as they feel bored while working in the
same competitive environment again and again. This helps Hilton hotels to fight
stagnation and achieve set growth and development.
P2 Employer Expectations
Below mentioned are the important employer expectations from the employees of the
hospitality industry professionals: Good communication: This is one of the most required skills by the Hilton Hotels from
its employees because good communication allows the organisation to achieve better
customer relations (Dawson, 2018). It is hard for the organisation to maintain its
operations and achieve set growth without having good communication skills. This helps
the organisation to achieve development and growth and provides new customers as well
(Johnson, Prescott and Lyon, 2017). Grooming: Better grooming is required because the employees of hospitality industry
need to look good in order to ensure better relationships with its customers and develop
and maintain organisational reputation. It is the important aspect which the employers of
Hilton Hotels looks in its employees. Time management: Time management is another important skill which the employers of
the organisation look in their employees. Effective time management allows them to
achieve set growth and advantages and achieve its daily tasks successfully. The
employees which are effective in their time management can allow the organisation to
achieve growth and advantages.
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 Decision making: Employees with better decision making skills are important for an
organisation because it allows the organisation to manage its decision making properly.
For example, during the time of risks and issues regarding profitability it is important for
the organisation to achieve set growth and development (Cruess, Cruess and Steinert,
2016). Along with it, better decision making allows the organisation to achieve better
growth and advantage .
 Teamwork: It is one of the most important requirement of the organisation for its
employees. The employer of Hilton Hotels looks for teamwork in its employees because
without having good team work skills, it is hard for the employees to work within team
environment and help the organisation in achieving set goals and objectives. Team work
allows the organisation to build effective teams and maintain a stronghold with its
organisation to manage and achieve large organisational goals properly.
P3 Own skills and competencies
Below mentioned are my own skills and competencies: Communication skills: I hold good communication skills which helps the organisation to
achieve set goals and skills. It is important for me have good communication skills in
order to maintain a strong competitive advantages within the employee base and keep
growing. Good communication skills also helps me to maintain better relationships with
my colleagues and customers as well (Johnson, Prescott and Lyon, 2017). Leadership Skills: Good leadership skills allow me to achieve better advantage in
leadership and in situations when required. It is important to have good leadership at
times when needed because the aspect of leadership is important in modern working
environment. Along with it, it helps me to maintain a strong advantage in the situations
when my employees require better leadership (Gomez Zaccarelli and Osborne, 2018.). Teamwork: Good teamwork allows me to maintain a good advantage in situations where
team work is essential. Also, it allows me to maintain a better advantage in gaining new
skills and experiences. Teamwork helps me to develop better advantage in managing
employees and situations where management is important.
 Decision making: Good set of decision making skills is important for an individual to
make required decisions in required situations. Important decisions needs to be made in
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order to achieve growth and success both for the organisation and myself. It can help me
to ensure that I am achieving my goals and objectives perfectly (Bales, R., 2016.).
P4 Learning theories and approaches used for professional and personal development
Below mentioned are the range of learning theories and approaches used by me for
professional development: Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic (VAK): This learning style model provides a simple way to
understand and explain learning styles. It uses three main sensory receivers which are
Vision, Auditory and Kinaesthetic respectively. My dominated learning style is visual
and I tend to develop a better connection when I am visual (Olsen, 2015). Honey and Mumford: The honey and Mumford learning styles includes people such as
activists, theorists, pragmatists, and reflectors. The activists are the ones which learn by
doing, the theorists learn by the hypothesis behind the theories and pragmatists learn from
the practice and reflectors learn from contemplating and watching. I am a activist and I
learn by doing.
 Pavlov theory: Pavlov theory is a learning procedure that helps me in learning by pairing
a stimulus with a conditioned response. It is one of the most effective theories used by me
in my own professional development.
 I Prefer visual learning style, as it assist me in developing in depth understanding
about the concept. In addition to this, audio-visual learning style also supports me in
retaining the knowledge for long time.
Below mentioned are the range of learning approaches used by me for personal
development: Learning on the job: Learning on the job allows me to learn and manage things
effectively. It allows me to learn things effectively on the job and use them in personal
environments when required (Dawson, 2018). Learning Technologies: Learning technologies such as the usage of internet and mobile
phones allow me to learn new things perfectly. These technologies are important in
developing core skills and development. For example: I make use of YouTube to learn
management and leadership practices.
 Creativity: The skill of creativity help the individual to gain a good advantage in learning
and development (Bales, 2016). Creativity allows in creating new things and think
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beyond. It helps to gain better advantage in situations where there is a need for creative
mind. Creativity helps in enhancing own knowledge about the subjects in which one is
creating new things into and allows an individual to express himself differently.
P5 Development plan for enhancing the skills and core competencies within specific work
related context
Functions or role of receptionist in hotel industry is to perform office work as well
administrative tasks. It is the duty of receptionist to attend the phone calls and respondent to
customer queries. Receptionist is the first person with whom customer meets.
An individual in order to perform the role of receptionist in Hotel is required to posses
different skills these are computer literacy, an effective written as well as communication skills,
ability to work in flexible schedule, strong interpersonal skills, ability to calm under work
pressure. Development of the such skills is very much necessary in order to perform specific
roles and responsibilities in systematic manner.
Skill audit can be defined as the procedure of conducting the self- assessment in order to
address the skill gap. The main objective of conducting the skills audit is to identify the skill
needed for performing the specific role within an enterprise.
Swot analysis
Strength :
 I am very much polite.
 I am Well organized in my work.
 I am very much conscious about my
roles as well as responsibilities.
 I have basic knowledge about computer
 I am friendly
 I am open minded
 I have good written communication
skills
 I have depth knowledge about the front
desk operations.
 I am responsible
 I pay attention to the information asked
Weakness :
Lack of confidence.
Poor oral communication skills
I face difficulty to adjust myself in new
environment
I don't have experience in particular field.
I feel shy.
Lack of flexibility
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by guests.
Opportunities :
I have an opportunity to learn and increase my
knowledge.
I can get an opportunity to become customer
service representative , executive or personal
assistant.
Threats :
Technology
Lack of public speaking skills which can
hinder my personal as well as professional
growth.
Skills Personal
audit
questionnair
e
1 2 3 4 5
Oral
Communica
tion skills
Do I feel
hesitated in
answering
the phone
calls.
X
Written
communicat
ion skills
I feel
confident
while given
response to
customer
queries
through E-
mail
X
KNOWLED
GE ABOUT
I use
computer
X
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COMPUTE
R
easily
Ability to
adjust in
changing
situation
Do I face
difficulty in
adjusting to
change.
X
Development plan
Objectives Activities to be performed Resources Target date Assessmen
t
Increase
confidence
level
I will attend personality
development classes as this
will help me in increasing
my confidence level.
Support from
tutor of
personality
development
classes.
Within three moths Self –
assessment
To become
more
flexibility
I will attend training
program, seminars.
Within six moths Feedback
from
supervisor
Self –
assessment
Oral
communicatio
n skills
I will attend language
classes. I will practice in
front of mirror. I will seek
support from my friends and
family members (Bales,
2016.).
Support from
my friends and
family
members.
Within six moths Self –
assessment
Feedback
from
seniors
Technical
skills
I will seek support from
technical team in my
Support from
technical team
Within eight
months
Feedback
from
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organist ion supervisor
s
P6 Job interview for suitable service industry role
Interview can be referred to as in depth interaction between two or more people in formal
manner. This procedure which is conducted in order to judge the skills of candidate applying for
the specific job role. I have decided to take the first the telephonic interview as it will help me
in judging the communication skills of candidate. In addition to this, I have planned to execute
the formal and structured face to face interview with the candidate. Structured interview can be
defined as the formal screening procedure which is utilized for evaluating the candidates for
specific Job role. I have created the questions which is to be asked to candidate during the time
of interview. I have planned to asked the same set of questions to all candidates applying for the
post of receptionist.
The questions which I will ask to candidate applying for the post of receptionist in Hilton hotel
will be :
 What do you know about our organization and our services. ?
 What inspires you to do the job of receptionist ?
 What techniques you will adapt to keep up in a fast pace working environment ?
 How you will organize your daily schedule ?
 What is the main role reception have to perform in order top develop positive impression
on customers. ?
 Will you be comfortable working overtime?
 Do you have knowledge about computer?
P7 Reviewing the key strength as well as weakness of an applied interview process
The major strengths of the structured interview is that as same questions are asked to
different candidates it becomes easier for interview to compare the answers of different people
and select the best candidate. Another biggest strength of structured interview is that interviewer
can easily evaluate the skills of candidates fairly (Cottrell, 2015.). Other strength of formal
interview is that all the candidates those who have visited an organization for the giving the
interview gets an equal chance to prove that they have as well as experience to perform specific
job role. In addition to this, structured or formal interview are organized in such a manner that it
provides interviewer an ease in getting all the information needed related to the candidate.
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The biggest weakness of structured interview is that development of such types of
interview is very complicated as well as complex task (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). In
addition to this, other major weakness of structured or formal interview is that there is high
chances of leaking of questions (omez Zaccarelli and Osborne, 2018). In addition to this, major
weakness of structured as well as formal interview is that interview have to ask the questions to
number of applicant in order to make comparison which can be quite time consuming. Intensive
resources are required for designing the questionnaire.
CONCLUSION
The above report showcases the importance of personal and professional learning and
development for an individual. The report evaluates the models and approaches used by an
individual in personal and professional learning activities and how these models and approaches
helps them in achieving set goals and objectives. Along with it, the report showcases the set of
own personal skills that an individual requires in order to achieve its set goals and objectives. A
development plan is prepared in the report to enhance the skills and core competencies to within
specific work. The development plan showcases one's capability to advance in the stage of
learning and growing respectively. Along with it, a job interview is made for the job role of front
office receptionist in order to understand and evaluate the importance of an interview process.
The key strengths and weaknesses of the applied interview process is evaluated and analysed as
well. The overall report helps one to understand and determine the advantages of learning and
managing personal and professional skills. Also, it allows the individual to improve the set skills
and competencies accordingly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bales, R., 2016. Using the Myers-Briggs type indicator for personal and professional
development in the Miller Business Honors Program.
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Cruess, R.L., Cruess, S.R. and Steinert, Y., 2016. Amending Miller’s pyramid to include
professional identity formation. Academic Medicine. 91(2). pp.180-185.
Dawson, G.C., 2018. Years of Clinical Experience and Therapist Professional Development: A
Literature Review. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy. 48(2). pp.89-97.
Gomez Zaccarelli, F. and Osborne, J., 2018. Learning from professional development: a case
study of the challenges of enacting productive science discourse in the classroom.
Professional Development in Education, pp.1-17.
Johnson, M., Prescott, D. and Lyon, S., 2017. Learning in online continuing professional
development: An institutionalist view on the personal learning environment. Journal of
New Approaches in Educational Research (NAER Journal). 6(1). pp.20-27.
Olsen, B., 2015. Teaching what they learn, learning what they live: How teachers' personal
histories shape their professional development. Routledge.
Patton, K., Parker, M. and Tannehill, D., 2015. Helping teachers help themselves: Professional
development that makes a difference. NAssP Bulletin. 99(1). pp.26-42.
Trorey, G. and Cullingford, C., 2017. Professional development and institutional needs.
Routledge.
Online
Structured Interview: Questions and Answers, Advantages and Disadvantages. 2018. [Online].
Available through :<https://www.job-interview-site.com/structured-interview-questions-
and-answers-advantages-and-disadvantages.html>.
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