Report on Personal and Professional Development: Travelodge Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of personal and professional development within the context of Travelodge, a UK-based hospitality company. It begins by defining self-managed learning and exploring various approaches, such as using the internet, social networks, seminars, and conferences, along with their pros and cons. The report then examines how lifelong learning is encouraged, including self-directed learning, SWOT analysis, credit accumulation, financial support, and trade magazine subscriptions. It outlines the benefits of self-managed learning for both individuals, such as improved team working, presentation, and communication skills, and for the organization, including enhanced goal attainment and risk management. The report continues by assessing the manager's skills against professional standards and organizational objectives, identifying development needs, and creating a personal and professional development plan. It details the implementation process, documents development activities, evaluates learning outcomes, and updates the development plan. Finally, the report addresses solutions to work-based problems, communication styles, and time management strategies, concluding with a discussion of the importance of continuous development in the hospitality industry. The appendix contains supporting documents such as tables and diagrams.

PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1.1 Approaches to self-managed learning............................................................................1
P1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional development are
encouraged..............................................................................................................................3
P1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning to individuals and organisation...............................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Own skills and competencies of manager against the professional standards and
organisation objectives...........................................................................................................6
2.2 Own development needs and the activities required to meet them..................................7
2.3 Development opportunities to meet current and future needs..........................................8
2.4 Personal and professional development plan based on identifies need. ..........................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Process and activities required to implement those development plan..........................11
3.2 Undertake and documents development activities as planned.......................................12
3.3 Own learning against original aims & objectives set in the development plan..............14
3.4 The updated personality development plan....................................................................15
TASK4...........................................................................................................................................17
4.1 Solutions to work based problems..................................................................................17
4.2 Communicate in numerous styles suitable at various levels..........................................19
4.3 Use effective time management strategies.....................................................................20
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................21
......................................................................................................................................................21
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................22
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................24

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development is the procedure through which the organisation
and individual prosecute in the activity of learning to meet the objections and desire goals. It is
related with the improvement necessity of the individual and as well as group. This involves
developing individuals such that they understand their roles and duties and enhances the
necessary skills and knowledge required to carry out the activity to accomplish desired goals and
objectives effectively and efficiently. Organisation undertaken in this report is Travelodge which
is from UK and deals in hospitality industry. This report will explain how self-directed learning
will enhance lifelong learning. Further the report will define how the individual will be able to
take their responsibility in personal and professional development. This will also determine the
development plan for personal and professional for properly and continually reviewing the
individual. Later part of the report will elucidate the acquired interpersonal and transferable
skills.
P1.1 Approaches to self-managed learning.
Self-managed learning is a specific, investigation supported and much evidenced
conceptualisation to learning that delivers important benefits over customary methods. It is way
through which individual manage their learning (Bogren, 2016). This means Travelodge will
have self-learning activities and sessions that will be appropriate within their constitution and
insure that staff is developing in a definite way. These activities are planned and formulated
permitting individuals to track and manage themselves through learning so that can continually
modify their potency. It is the technique of evolution where individuals will take initiatives in
learning new ability, cognition and attitudes with the assistance of organisation (Bryant and
Usher, 2014). There are various approaches of self-managed learning which Travelodge will use
for developing individuals and they are discussed below :-
 Internet :- Individual can gain knowledge and information from internet as it has the
infinite information available and people can access them easily. They can acquire such
knowledge which will help them to use them in workplace. The information is sometimes
inappropriate and people can learn through self studies.
 Social networks :- It is a website that permit people with common interest to come
collectively and share information, knowledge in form of videos, images and articles, etc.
These provides authenticate knowledge towards the topic and not available easily.
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 Seminars :- It is a kind of academic operating instructions given to the individual either
at educational institution or at commercial and professional organisation for their
improvement (Dietl and Schweizer, 2015). It brings together small group for continual
meetings, focussing each time on specific subject, etc. The people can get the knowledge
from authorised person as well relevant knowledge.
 Conferences :- It is a formal meeting where individuals exchange their views and ideas
on various topics. It can take place in different fields where speakers speak and share
their points on numerous topics. Provide perfect balance among theoretical and practices,
unsatisfactory for interpersonal communication in learning.
The Internet is the most convenient and suitable for me and my staff. This will be useful
in hotel industry as it will help people in gaining knowledge about the company. These days,
everyone before making bookings for hotel, explore the official website of the company on
internet. It will help Travelodge in designing their websites such that it will attract people. They
will use various images of the hotel with beautiful views, set of facilities they provide, prices,
bedroom pictures, etc. This will help people in learning about the organisation and help company
in targeting large number of people. On their official website, they will also provide an ease of
booking with relevant offers and discounts.
Approaches Pros Cons
Internet It helps in channelising the
vast collection of information
which can be easily derived
and helps individuals.
It has decreased personal
privacy because the amount of
information shared on internet
is tremendous.
Social network It provides with the ease of
reaching people instantly at
anywhere.
It promotes anti social human
behaviour because people
prefer using social networks
for communication and sharing
information rather then face to
face interactions.
Seminars It provides professional
development, learning
There is a lot of cost involved
and also time consuming.
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experience, motivation to the
people.
Sometimes it can be located
away from the business which
causes inconvenience.
Conference It enhances face to face
knowledge sharing, builds
professional opportunities,
fosters team work.
Various challenges are
involved in this like logistic
management, fiscal and project
management which makes it
inappropriate and less efficient
for gaining knowledge.
P1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional development are encouraged.
Lifelong learning is a continuous, self-imposed and self-driven movement of knowledge
for personal or professional reasons. It is beneficial for the overall growth of the individual. It is
the self-orientated, every day pursuance to look for formal or informal content for personal
activity or to acquire career skills (Elliott, 2016). In simpler words, this is the procedure of
gaining knowledge and improving skills throughout the life which will be useful in balancing
and improving personal and professional growth of people. Travelodge will use numerous ways
of that will encourage lifelong learning in personal and professional fields and they are discussed
below :-
 Self-directed learning:- Travelodge will take advantage of their employees personal
interest by encouraging them to self-directed learning (García-Carmona and et. al., 2018).
Organisation will take care of better needs for their employees and assess the kinds of
training required to them. This approach helps the life-long learning in an individual as
employees are self-directed they conduct activities according to their understanding.
 SWOT analysis :- This will help individual working in Travelodge to analyse the SWOT
which will be useful in determining their strength which is a powerful skill , weaknesses
and evaluation of methods will be done to overcome those weaknesses, explains the new
opportunities on which individual can work with full potential and defining threat and
ways for minimising risk associated. The SWOT analysis helps employees to understand
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their specific strength, weakness, opportunities and threats by which they motivates and
knowledge towards situations are also increased.
 Credit accumulations and transfer schemes :- It is used to supervise, record and reward
transition through a standard state of course of instruction and to ease movement between
courses and institution (Gedro, 2017). This will help individual in gaining knowledge
and transfer schemes will motivate them to learn new skill and work in accordance with
it. This also help them to improve life-long learning by which organisation improves
knowledge.
 Financial support : Every employee works for the sake of financial benefits which is
essential for the livelihood so that employees can fulfil their needs and demands. By
providing them with adequate financial aid, will help in accomplishing organisational
goals in Travelodge and encourages staff of housekeeping and receptionist.
 Subscribe to trade magazines : This will help staff and receptionist to gain knowledge
by reading those magazines and enhance development. This will encourage life long
learning and they will work with full zeal and confidence.
Therefore, all the above approaches will be useful in encouraging lifelong
learning of staffs and receptionist and leads to their personal and professional development.
P1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning to individuals and organisation.
Self-managed learning is about employees and staff responsibilities for their own
learning and developments. It assist individual learners to get concerned in cocreating,
preparation and reflective on their acquisition experiences (Homrich and Henderson, 2018). It
develops and delivers validated programs that integrate independent learning skills. Self-
managed learning is a technique which is not only beneficial to the individual working in
Travelodge but also for the organisation and they are discussed separately.
Benefits to individuals
Self-managed learning is a very important tool for personal and professional development
and it is beneficial to the individuals and It will be advantageous to me as a manager of
Travelodge in following ways :
 Team working skills :- Individuals will learn to work in team from their academic
prospect through group activity assignments or projects and will apply such knowledge in
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the organisation. For instance, when there is any change in organisation, say
technological change and few things are changed from normal to digital and people will
work in team to accomplish those changes.
 Presentation skills :- Individuals in Travelodge will learn about how to make
presentations using projectors which gives them the chance to express knowledge of what
they have learnt from a particular topic and enhances their confidence level to speak and
express their view in a gathering of a people. For instance, while implementing changes,
proper presentation will be organised so that it will make vision and mission clear to the
people. For this purpose, it is very important to have effective presentation skills.
 Communication skills :- It helps individual in Travelodge to develop their
communication skills in writing which is used by the organisation in setting objectives
(Killingsworth Roberts and et. al., 2014). It will help them to be independent due to that it
challenges them to come up with their own learning that they could share it with others.
For instance, while implementing changes, apart from presentation skills, people must
have effective communication skills so that they can explain and give answers to the
queries of the people such that it will be easily understood. This will further reduce the
chances of conflicts and helps in accomplishing goals and objectives.
Benefits to organisation
Self-managed learning is useful for organisation as it help them to attain the desired
objectives and goals effectively and efficiently (Koerner, 2017). It helps organisation to plan and
set goals and objective such that it will contribute in the growth and development of the
Travelodge. This will help organisation to increase their sales and profitability through effective
self-managed learning regarding marketing and promotions approaches of the Travelodge. It will
give the advantage of predicting future risks and opportunities for the organisations and help
them in minimising risk and grabbing opportunities for better enhancement and development.
For instance, in case of peak season say during vacation period, Travelodge will have to deal
with multiple customers and at that time self managed learning will be useful to them and to the
organisation as well in identifying, meeting and satisfying customers demands and providing
them a pleasant experience.
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TASK 2
2.1 Own skills and competencies of manager against the professional standards and organisation
objectives.
The hotel manager need to have proficient in some skills as organisation has set few
professional standards by which it become cushy to achieve the organisation objectives
(Kwantes and Glazer, 2017). The Travelodge hotel aim to improve the rooms standards due to
which customers attract and provide some additional facilities to its guest. If guest feel happy
then only customer will come back, so for this organisation has sets the performance standards to
make their hotel manager attractive. The professional standards according to which manager
should improve their quality. These skills are required to be developed properly in the manager
to achieve the organisational objectives effectively. The professional standards for the skills are:
My current skills Professional standards Travelodge and Job role
objectives
Communication skills:- I
am able to communicate
with small team and able to
discuss the ides with
employees easily.
The communication skill which
manager should have as per the
professional standards are sound
should be pleasant, appropriate
words are used, fluent while
communicating. (Liebowitz,
2016).
Travelodge objectives are the
room need to attractive and
interior have nice. The person
wants to be fluent while
communicating or want
communication should be
influential.
Detailed oriented:- I am
detailed oriented person. I
want very little detail task
or operations which are
going in the business.
The manager should know about
each very task in hotel. They have
to be detailed about their guest,
facilities to be provided to them.
Its manager responsibility to
make sure that organisation
goals are meeting regular or not
or any duty are not getting
neglected. So, being detailed
oriented is very important for
the organisation.
Operational knowledge: -
Being a manager my
operations knowledge are
The hotel manager should know
about each very operations
whether it's related to marketing,
To achieve the highest profit its
essential to have the overall
operational knowledge. The
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not that strong. I want to
learn every aspect to take
efficient decision making.
finance, human resource etc.
(Litwicki and White, 2014). They
also know about daily operations
of a business.
person wants to learn and
understand every area of the
operations.
Leadership:- I am able to
lead the small team but it’s
difficult for me to lead the
whole organisation.
The hotel should know ways to
motivate, influence employees by
which objectives of a hotel will be
accomplished. These are the
criteria to be an effective
manager.
To achieve the objectives
manager should know the ways
to lead the team. As a manager
I w06 Feb-2019 04:47 PMant
to be able to lead the team
properly.
Team building:- As a
manager I am been able to
build a strong team by
which objectives of the
organisation will be
achieve.
The Travelodge manager should
know how build team effectively
otherwise employees according
their perspective (Nichols and
Cormack, 2017). The conflicts
and disputes are easily solved in
organisation.
The objectives are to have the
attractive and comfortable
rooms as when teams are
managing appropriately then
objectives are easy to fulfil.
Flexibility: - I am flexible
with time duration as well
as I am adoptable in every
situation.
The hotel manager have be
flexible in working hours and
very much adoptable in every
situations.
To achieve the objectives
manager, have to be the
flexible and adoptable in every
scenario.
2.2 Own development needs and the activities required to meet them.
In order to perform the various duties as in Traveling it is important to identify the areas of
improvements. If the skills are not according to the standards, then it’s important for manager to
develop those skills by which organisational objectives will be achieved. If skills are not
appropriately and timely develop by the manager then it became very difficult for the
organisation to gain its targeted goals. The ways of improving the skills: -
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Skills to be developed Methods of development
To improve the
communication skill
The manager communication has to be motivated & influential
to the staff. The guest must experience the unforgettable trip;
the leader is the face of the hotel as guest firstly come in
contact with them. The activities to be conducted to improve
this skill, I will take part in the debate competition, group
discussion and start communicating with the new people by
which my confidence also get boost.
To gain the operational
knowledge
It is necessary to gain the proficient knowledge by which
companies decision making don’t get effected. So, being a
leader I will learn the operational aspects like finance, Human
resources, cost control etc. by myself & try to learn it from
class are the activities to be conducted. So, that decisions can't
get effected. If I don't have knowledge about operations, then it
will become difficult for me to take decision.
To improve the leadership
quality
The leaders are the backbone of the organisation. The manager
of hotel should know the leadership quality. The effective
leader can make the goals achieved on time otherwise it’s very
difficult to achieve those obtained goals. The activities in
which I take part to improve leadership quality, are
entrepreneur summits & also join the leadership learning
programmes.
To improve the team building To improve the working in organisation so, it’s very essential
for the organisation to have the stress less organisation by
which employee do the work effectively (Stephany, 2015) . I
will take part more in team work as well as by observing the
team leader I will get to learn this skill. These are the activities
to improve team building skill.
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2.3 Development opportunities to meet current and future needs.
The professional standards which are required for the Travelodge hotel need to develop
those standards in the manager properly. Otherwise this will affect the objectives which are set
by the organisation. The managerial skills can critically effects the activities of the organisation
(Paustian, 2015). The skills are:-
 Communication:- The manager communication skills needs to be effective otherwise
activities in the organisation get easily effected. The oral communication need to be
improve, face difficultly while communicating with large group. This is a skill which
manager wants to improve, to achieve the objectives of the organisation is also becoming
difficult for the organisation. The activities which are effected like guest feel
inexperienced and employees misunderstood the ideas. The opportunity is read more &
more novel, try communicate with new people outside the organisation and newspaper
also by which current and future need of organisation are meet.
 Operational Knowledge:- The operational knowledge should be develop in the manager
strongly because if an employee have appropriate operational knowledge then only daily
decisions will made effective (Reeson, Mason and Sanderson, 2017). This skill can easily
effect activities which are happening in the hotel. The opportunity to develop operational
knowledge inside the Hotel is to see or examine every operations and outside opportunity
is to attain class related to Recar operation by this current as well as future both needs are
meet or objectives are also achieved.
 Leadership:- Its very essential to build the excellent leadership in the organisation. The
leaders are the most essential part to lead the organisation in a effective way. The
activities also get effected if leadership is not good as decisions are not made
appropriately (Scott and McCoig, 2016) . The inside opportunity is to examine the top
managers leadership style in organisation and outside is to attain entrepreneurial summits
or seminaries on leadership by which needs are accomplished.
 Team building:- The team building need to be effective otherwise the conflicts can't be
resolve easily & the stress can't be manage properly. Its very important for the manager
to build the effective team in the organisation. The team will get effected if I don't have
efficient leadership quality. The inside opportunity is to always work within team and try
to lead team effectively as accomplish needs.
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2.4 Personal and professional development plan based on identifies need.
The personality development plan is created to make themselves aware about the skills
that are required to be developed by them and the qualities which are essential to be developed
according to which organisational gaols are going to achieve easily. From the below image is can
easy understandable how development plan is made and it would more clearly understand by the
development plan of a Travelodge hotel manager. s
Development
objectives
Prioriti
es
Activities to
be undertaken
Resources Target
start date
Target end
date
Criteria for
success
Communicati
on skills
(speaking
skill while
communicati
ng with large
group)
Very
high
Take part in
debate
competition,
group
discussion,
read
newspapers,
magazines and
Try
communica
te with the
team
members to
make it
more fluent
and
20/01/19 25/04/19 To take the
feedbacks from
the manager,
team and the
employees to
make the
communicatio
n more
10
Illustration 1: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
(Source 1: Personality and Professional development. 2019)