UK College of Business: Personal and Professional Development Report

This report delves into personal and professional development, focusing on self-managed learning approaches, lifelong learning encouragement, and the evaluation of self-managed learning within the context of the Travelodge hotel. It assesses current skills and competencies, identifies development needs, and outlines activities to meet those needs. The report further explores the identification of current and future needs, culminating in a devised personal and professional development plan. It details the implementation process, including activities undertaken and critical reflection on learning against original objectives. The report concludes by selecting solutions to work-based problems and evaluating communication styles and time-management strategies, providing a comprehensive overview of personal and professional growth in a professional setting.

Personal and
professional
development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Approaches of self managed learning..............................................................................1
1.2 Lifelong learning can be encouraged in personal and professional development............2
1.3 Evaluation of self managed learning................................................................................2
TASK2.............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Evaluation of own current skills and competencies. ..............................................3
2.2 Identification of own development needs and activities required to meet them..............4
2.3 Identification and developing current and future needs...................................................5
2.4 Devising a personal and professional development plan based on identifies needs........6
TASK3 ............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Process and activities required to implement development plan......................................7
3.2 Undertake and document development activities.............................................................8
3.3 Critical reflection on own learning against original aims and objectives........................8
3.4 Updated development plan...............................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1- Select solutions to work-based problems......................................................................10
4.2 Different types of communication styles at various level..............................................10
4.3- Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies...............................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development is a formal way by which an individual designs
the objectives, plan of action and results of training and learning. It is the roadmap for the career
of the individual and engages them in the process of learning to meet desired goals. Organisation
undertaken in this report is Travaelodge which was founded in 1985 and deals in hospitality
industry and provides hotel and accommodation facilities. This report will explain the
importance of self managed learning and its enhancement in lifelong development. It also
determines that individual will take responsibility for their personal and professional
development on their own. This will also examine and review the personal and professional
development plan of their own regularly. Later part of the report will demonstrate the acquired
interpersonal and transferable skills.
TASK1
1.1 Approaches of self managed learning.
Self managed learning is a way in which individuals can managed their own learning. It
refers to a process of initiating learning process by individuals. This is defined by the clear way
of setting goals, objectives and targets for learning by and individual. It is an unending procedure
. It is a form of development where people learn about new skills, knowledge and attitudes with
the support of the organisation (Avidov-Ungar, 2016). There are various approaches of self
managed learning which will help the people of Travelodge to enhance their abilities and they
are discussed below :
 Internet : It is the most important tool for learning and various social software tools are
used like web logs, wikis, etc. are used in providing education and training. For instance,
it will help Travelodge in uploading their companies website which will be useful for
customers in gaining information about the same.
 Seminars : A seminar is a speech or presentation delivered to the gathering on a peculiar
subject or set of topic that are informative in nature. This is usually help in hotel meeting
room or within a conference room of office.
The most appropriate approaches for Travelodge can be social network and internet
because it is hotel industry and this will help people in learning about the organisations website
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which will further help in gaining the useful information like ratings, facilities, ambience, etc.
about the company.
1.2 Lifelong learning can be encouraged in personal and professional development.
Lifelong learning is the self directed, continuous quest to seek formal and informal
education for personal and professional development. It is the process of gaining knowledge and
skills through out the life which will help in performing the job properly (Brody and Hadar,
2015). This preserves an individual's desire to obtain new knowledge outside of the formal
education system. This can be encouraged in Travelodge and as a manager I will use various
methods to encourage the individuals and they are discussed below:
 Continuous professional development : It is the term used to describe activities
professionals engaged in to enhance and develop their abilities. It enables learning to be a
conscious and proactive activity that develops individuals in a way such that it will
improve their performance at work. For this purpose, I will promote the learning culture
and provides fund, time and support needed to ensure that employees are successfully
performing their work.
 Self directed learning : It is a way through which individual will assess their abilities,
skills and knowledge. As a manager of Travelodge, I will encourage people by assigning
task and responsibility to individuals and supporting teams through these tasks. The
personal SWOT analysis is a useful tool for evaluating and identifying the strength,
weakness, threats and opportunities which will be beneficial in enhancing the lifelong
learning of he individual.
1.3 Evaluation of self managed learning.
Self managed learning is a very useful method for developing personal and professional
life of an individual (Bukor, 2015). It is beneficial to individuals and organisations in
Travelodge and they are discussed below :
Benefits to the individual
Self managed learning will be beneficial for individuals in various ways. It will help
individuals to become self resilience, encourages them to work towards the attainment of goals
and objectives. It is a flexible approach and individuals will become more comfortable to gain
knowledge from this method. It will help them to learn certain skills like communication,
presentation, listening, etc. which will help them in developing individual positions.
2

Benefits to the organisation
Self managed learning will be equally beneficial for the organisation also and most
important benefit is that it minimises the cost of arrangements of formal learning by encouraging
self managed learning for their employees (Caras and Sandu, 2014). It helps individuals to learn
the values and cultures of the organisation in a minimum time and they will be able to learn the
rules and regulations of working. By improving the knowledge and skills of individuals, it will
automatically provides benefit to the organisation as they will be having skilled workforce who
will work for the betterment and attainment of organisational goals and objectives effectively
and efficiently.
TASK2
2.1 Evaluation of own current skills and competencies.
The primary objectives of Travelodge hotel is to meet the demands of their customers.
For this purpose, they will provide all the facilities like pleasure ambience, conformable and
clean rooms, kids and meditations zones, etc. For this purpose, I will analyse and evaluate my
own current skills and competencies and it is discussed below :
S.NO. I am able to Score Score from others Differences
1 Communication skills
Confident in communicating in groups.
Ability to communicate with different
customers in different language.
8
4
7
2
-1
-2
2 Presentation skills
Ability to give clear explanation while
presenting my content.
Ability to engage people in my
presentation for longer duration.
6
7
7
5
-1
2
3 Leadership skills
To encourage people for attainment of
goals.
Provide motivation through effective
8
7
8
5
0
2
3

training programs like coaching,
guidance, etc.
From the above analysis I can say that I need to improve my communication skills,
presentation skills for clearly explaining the content which makes people clear and understood. I
have good leadership skills and need little improvement on focussing on people to encourage
them for accomplishing goals (Cottrell, 2015) .
2.2 Identification of own development needs and activities required to meet them.
It is very important for the organisation to develop certain skills in their employees and
employer which will be beneficial in meeting the organisational goals and objectives effectively
and efficiently. Self evaluation is useful in analysing the own current skills and developing those
skills which lacks in them (Davis, 2015). If certain skills are not fully developed in me then this
can become obstacle in effective functioning of the operations of Travelodge. Those skills needs
to be developed with the help of various methods.
Skills which are needed to be developed Methods of developing those skills
Communication skills Communication is the process of exchanging
information, ideas, thoughts, etc. between the
people at the workplace. It is the most effective
tool for people working in an organisation.
Being the manager of Travelodge, I should
poses strong communication skills which can
be done with help of programs like debates. By
setting internal newsletter in an organisation,
will help me in learning recent happenings so
that I can gain more knowledge and fully deal
with the people.
Presentation skills Presentation is a form of speech or talk which
can be done for various purposes like
introducing new product, idea, etc. and
explained that to the audience. I lack giving
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clear description to the people and this can be
improved by practising, attending various
conferences, watching you tube videos will
guide me in knowing how to start presentation
and this will help me in developing skills such
that I will be able to answer the queries of
people.
2.3 Identification and developing current and future needs.
As I am the manager of Travelodge, it is very important for me to analyse the current and
future needs in hotel (Forte and Flores, 2014). This will help me in evaluating the opportunities
which are available internally or externally of the hotel to improve skill development needs. As a
manager there are various skills which I should poses in myself and I am responsible for
managing the entire organisation and meeting business objectives.
 Current needs : Currently as I analysed from the above that I lack various skills and that
are needed to be developed. I need to develop my communication skills so that I can
make clear about the mission and vision of the company to the other people. Developing
my communication will also help me in minimising conflict (Grant, 2014). Learning new
languages will help me dealing with different kinds of customers effectively as in hotel,
people from all over the world visits.
 Future needs : Working in a hotel industry, needs timely updates in functioning and
operations. As the main goal is to satisfy customers expectation and customer taste
changes with time. For this purpose, the future needs can be developing effective
technological skills as it will be used in hotel industry like taking customer finger print
while they check in and check out, for this I should know how to operate such technical
machines.
For identifying and developing current and future needs of the people, Travelodge will
adopt the ASPIRE program in which people develop a dynamic approach of goal setting and life
skill building. This will help people in lifelong learning and impactful contributors in the world.
Is is a training and development program which provides a structure for development
opportunities and resources. For instance, while analysing my current needs I have realised that I
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need to focus more on my communication skills and aspire program provides effective training
on developing communication in all aspects like oral, verbal, written or visual. It will also help
me developing the future needs by providing personal wellness which includes developing skills
like mental health, time management and work life balance.
2.4 Devising a personal and professional development plan based on identifies needs.
Personal and professional development plan:
Development
objective
Priority Activities
required to
be
considered
Resources Start date End date Basis for
success
Communicati
on skills
Very high I will attend
various
debates,
workshops,
seminars,
etc. for
developing
my skills.
By
attending
debates and
taking part
in it, solving
customer
quires face
to face with
one on one
interaction.
01/03/19 01/04/19 My co-
workers,
subordinates
and all other
people with
whom I will
deal in
regular
business
days will
judge me.
Presentation
skills
Moderate I will watch
various
videos of
CEO of big
companies
on you tube
and practice.
By watching
successful
presenter
and
watching
various
presentation
s.
01/03/19 10/03/19 By taking
feedback
from the
people after
completing
the
presentation.
Leadership High I will follow By 01/03/19 20/03/19 Top
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skills and learn
various
leadership
styles which
are required
to practised
in different
business
situations
and learn
about their
benefits.
administerin
g the
performance
of seniors in
providing
guidance,
training,
motivation,
etc.
management
and
executives
will judge
my
performance
.
TASK3
3.1 Process and activities required to implement development plan.
For implementing development plan in a Travelodge, I will require a process and set of
activities to be consider so that it can be implemented effectively and further leads to the
attainment of organisational goals and objectives (Hildebrand, 2018). Plan provides with
opportunities and clear direction on how to increase skills and careers. The idea of personal and
professional development is changing continuously. The process and activities are explained
below :
 Consider business goals : Before setting objectives, I will analyse the needs of people
with company needs. The main objective of setting goals is to set goals that will enrich
and improve life.
 Talk to your employees : Communicating with employees will help me I knowing about
their needs and preferences. This will help in working together with employees so that I
will get clear understanding about what role the business can play as well as opportunities
for developing them can be used.
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 Recognize potential v/s readiness : While assessing my staff, its important for me to
remember that there is a difference between potential and readiness. For instance, one of
my employee has the potential to become manager but they are not ready to move into
that stage. Readiness comes in variety of forms, desires, skills and experience.
Performing versus managing are different sets of skills.
 Consider all types of training and development : It is important to consider all types of
training and development programs because any program can be needed in the business
organisation for developing the knowledge and skills. It can be class room training,
online courses, coaching and monitoring, etc. It will give less experienced employees the
chance to learn and grow.
 Create a plan : For effective implementation of development plan, I will create plan
before, during and after the completion of the objectives (Körkkö, Kyrö-Ämmälä and
Turunen, 2016). Once the specific learning opportunities are identifies, I will create a
plan.
3.2 Undertake and document development activities.
There are various activities which are essential for developing the development plan. For
specific requirements all the activities are required to be performed (Lawson and Cowling,
2015) . As a manager of Travelodge , I will have to keep in mind the following points :
 I will concentrate on improving my communication skills such that I will be able to
communicate effectively with everyone.
 I will improve my leadership skills which will help me in guiding people right way and
work as per the planned process.
 Capturing information and gathering initial thoughts is considered to be very important
for developing documentation of planned activities.
 I will organise social groups, as this will contain every part of intermediaries need to be
documented precisely and subsequently.
 Continuous monitoring on regular basis will enhance efficiency of any project to a great
extent. It will help me in analysing deviation and taking correcting action.
3.3 Critical reflection on own learning against original aims and objectives.
Learning is basically a relative change in person's knowledge or behaviour due to
experience. It is the transformative process of taking information internally and mixed it with
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what have been experienced. It is useful in gaining knowledge and expertise. So being the
manager of Travelodge, I have to keep myself updated with the skill and knowledge which are
required to be performed in business world for meeting objectives.
 Communication skills : It is a very essential skill and as a manager of Travelodge, I will
improve this skills for inspiring and attracting customers. I will do this by adopting
politeness, developing listening skills so that I know what I have to talk about, etc. I will
overcome my weakness by exploring different communication methods like reading news
paper, participating in debates,etc (Moon, 2014).
 Presentation skills : Once my communication skills will be improved, then half of my
presentation skills will be automatically improved because presentation includes
speaking, communicating to the audience about the changes (Moorley and Chinn, 2015).
I will develop this by following authors and leaders on social networks and watching
videos streaming on various sites for developing presentation skills.
3.4 Updated development plan.
Motives Reasons for not
achieving
objectives
Solutions needed Judgement Time period
Communication
skills
Lack of
confidence and
knowledge.
Attend various
lectures,
seminars, debates,
etc.
My to
management, sub
ordinates and all
other people with
whom I will deal
with everyday
will judge me.
3 months
Presentation skills Lack of clearly
explaining the
people what is to
be conveyed.
Attend various
presentations of
other people,
watch videos of
people on
internet,etc.
I will take
feedback from
people who will
attend my
presentation.
1 month
9

TASK 4
4.1- Select solutions to work-based problems.
There are various problems at the workplace of travellodge which are faced by the
managers. So they have decided to make appropriate solution for this. There are some steps
which will help the managers in determining problems and solving them accordingly they are
given as under:
Identification of issues – In this, they have to identify the main root of the problem from
which the risk is generated. It has been seems that managers are facing various problems in their
day to day activities.
Provide training – In order to reducing the issues managers have to provide training toe
their employees so that their motivation level will be increased and they will perform their task
with high level of efficiency.
Clear their roles and responsibilities – The managers have to communicate clearly the
roles and responsibilities to their staff members as per their skills and knowledge because if they
have no skills and efficiencies for doing the task then their motivation level will be decreased
and they will not perform the task in effective manner.
Reduce work loads –Managers have to understand the expectations of their employees
and provide workload accordingly. With the help of this, they will easily retain their employees
for a long time period.
Create effective communication – Managers have to make healthy relations with their
employees which can be possible through adopting effective communication structure in the
firm.
4.2 Different types of communication styles at various level
Communication is important in an organisation as it helps them to clear the goals and objectives
in the mind of customers. There are different style which could be useful for communication is
given below,
Controller style: It is dictatorial in nature as only one way communication is conducted.
In this order is given to the subordinates which has to be follow by person. It follows in a lower
level stage as it helps them to reduce ambiguity in the mind of person.
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