Personal and Professional Development Plan: Travelodge Hotel

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0Running head: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
LO 1: Enhancement of life-long development by self-managed Learning................................3
1.1 Approaches to self-managed learning and suitable approach for staff at Travelodge
Hotel.......................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Ways of encouraging lifelong learning in professional and personal contexts................4
1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning as an assistant manager.............................................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................6
LO 2: Responsibility for own professional and personal development.....................................6
2.1 Current skills and competencies against the professional standards and organizational
objectives................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Own development needs and activities for meeting them, improvement of skills..........7
2.3 Development opportunities for meeting current and future defined needs......................8
2.4 Devising personal and professional plan for development on the basis of identified
needs.......................................................................................................................................9
Task 3.......................................................................................................................................11
LO 3: Implementation and Review of own professional and personal development plan......11
3.1 Process and activities needed for implementing development plan...............................11
3.2 Implementation of the Development plan prepared.......................................................12
3.3 Critically reflecting on own learning against original aims and objectives...................13
3.4 Updating the development plan based on evaluation and feedbacks.............................13
Task 4.......................................................................................................................................15
LO 4.........................................................................................................................................15
4.1- Select solutions to work-based problems..........................................................................15
4.2- Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels.................17
4.3- Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies:.................................................18

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Reference List..........................................................................................................................19

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
The current assignment has presented a leaflet on enhancement of lifelong development by
self-managed learning of the managers and staff at London Bromley Central Travelodge
Hotel. This is basically based on forming a personal development portfolio of the Assistant
Manager employed at the hotel. The aspects of overall personal and professional
development staff in the hotel and roles of self-management and life-long learning in this has
been considered from the viewpoints of the Assistant Manager at Travelodge Hotel.
Task 1
LO 1: Enhancement of life-long development by self-managed Learning
1.1 Approaches to self-managed learning and suitable approach for staff at Travelodge
Hotel
The most common approaches to self-moaned learning are,
Internet and Social media based learning:
As a manager in the hotel, learning the essentials and developing practical skills can best be
possible by engaging in learning from websites on hotel and hospitality management and
services (Hildebrand, 2018). The manager can be connected with customers of the hotel,
general people and other employees through social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter
for learning from their feedbacks and opinions.
Conferences and Seminars:
The manager can attend different seminars and conferences on hospitality management and
essentials either arranged by the Travelodge Hotel or other organizations. This will help in
personal skills development.
Application of Bulletin Boards:
As hotel manager, using bulletin boards for making notes, defining goals and schedules might
be beneficial for professional and personal development.
Reading Books and Magazines:

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Reading books and consulting opinions provided by other managers, employees or customers
in different magazines might help. This might also be an effective step for learning new ways
of leading human resources at Travelodge Hotel, providing coaching to employees and
motivating them (Noe et al., 2017).
Among all these approaches, application of internet and social media based learning and
attending conference and seminars will be more suitable as management staff in the hotel.
The main reason is that these approaches would help mainly in staying in touch of customers
and general people and thus making best effective advantage of these contacts and
communications by receiving valuable feedback from them (Bolden, 2016). Based on those
feedbacks, necessary changes can be made in personal professional practices along with
developing new ideas for further development.
1.2 Ways of encouraging lifelong learning in professional and personal contexts
In case of operating as the Assistant Hotel Manager in London Bromley Central Travelodge,
there are several specific approaches of encouraging lifelong learning that can be of effective
benefits for professional and personal development. The concept of lifelong learning involves
flexible learning process and its availability at different stages and levels of continuous
professional operations (Yoon et al., 2017). However, the best effective means of
encouraging lifelong learning at personal level and for all staff at Travelodge Hotel, the
following ways might be advantageous.
Careful Observation and Planning:
This will be important to encourage the staff at Travelodge Hotel to be careful observer of
behaviour and operational patterns of others within the hotel as well as outside it, specifically
to observe the strategies of decision-making, controlling and monitoring of customer and
employee management operations by senior managers and supervisors (Gibbs, 2015). Bases
on these observations, they can their skills of strategic planning and decision making.
Internet and social media based learning:
For the staff in the hotel, internet will be the best source supporting lifelong learning mainly
through communication and information and opinion sharing with people. In addition, the
staff can learn valuable lessons from eminent leaders in hospitality like Bill Marriott, Barry
Sternlicht and PRS BikiOberoi through internet searching and consultation of different
websites (Wellin, 2016).

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Self-evaluation and reflection:
As a manager in the Travelodge Hotel, this might be one of the most effective suggestions to
provide to staff and employees there to make strategic application of self-evaluation and
reflection process as this will help them in learning from personal experiences and
involvements (Boyer et al., 2014). For instance, they could make use of the Kolb’s Reflective
Model, based on which they can develop own professional skills through experiencing,
reviewing, analysis and systematic evaluation approaches.
Encouraging Others:
The staff in the hotel will be encouraged for helping learning and skill development of others
like newly recruited employees at Travelodge Hotel and others outside the hotel. This will
help in their motive of lifelong learning through engagement, communication, information
sharing and discussion in society (Smither et al., 2016).
To be focused on new ways of learning:
For consistent development of professional skills of the staff, they must be encouraged for
trying new means of learning like watching documentaries, listening speech, drawing
diagrams for analysis of self-performance, creation of mind maps and taking valuable
opinions from others.
Engaging in consistent studies:
Involvement in continuous study regarding HR management, customer relationship
management, quality improvement and resource management in hospitality sector must be
encouraged among the staff at Travelodge Hotel as essential processes of lifelong learning
(Quintanilla and Wahl, 2018).
1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning as an assistant manager
As an Assistant Manager at the Travelodge Hotel, indulging in the process of self-managed
learning would generate benefits in personal professional development, which would also be
valuable for achieving customer satisfaction and higher operational efficiency of the
organization.
As manager of the hotel, self-managed learning will help in enhancing the communication
and interacting as well as management skills, which are most important in hospitality

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
industry. This will mostly be helpful in development of practical skills in of strategic
application of evolve hospitality and catering for raising overall efficiency of operations and
thereby brand image of the Travelodge Hotel (Küpers, 2016). Apart from assisting overall
enhancement of management skills, one important aspect will be development of practical
skills of observation, analysis and implementation which would be effective for achieving the
opportunity of new designation within the hotel (Gurdjian et al., 2014). For instance, as the
Assisting Manager in the hotel, the practise of self-managed learning will aid in developing
practical skill of analysis of sources of issues in customer service, resource allotment and
effective procurement maintenance, followed by taking required steps as needed. This
development in skills and knowledge might bring the opportunity of promotion to General
Manager Designation in the hotel.
Apart from this, self-managed learning will help in ability growing of devising new strategies
for seeking practical solution-oriented advice and comments from potential customers of the
hotel along with developing managerial ability of insisting staff and employees for achieving
these goals. Thus, self-managed learning can develop overall capability of the Assistant
Manager for brand development of Travelodge Hotel through developing own professional
skills (Knapp et al., 2016).
Task 2
LO 2: Responsibility for own professional and personal development
2.1 Current skills and competencies against the professional standards and
organizational objectives
For achieving success as the Assistant manager at Travelodge Hotel, this is important to
possess a certain level of operational skills related to management of HR, operational
resources, problem solving and specifically leading the organization towards sales and profit
enhancement. Moreover, in hospitality industry, brilliancy of communication skills is a must
for customer retention and satisfaction(Knapp et al., 2017). Therefore, as the responsible
manager in the hotel, this is a necessity to evaluate effectiveness of personal skills and
competencies against the organizational and professional standards at that organization.
As per the professional standard of employees at Travelodge Hotel, higher efficiency in
communication skill and being adept in observation and analysis skills are essential in the

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
organization. This is important for achieving organizational objectives of maximisation of
sales and profits through quality service providence to customers.
With the help of following framework, the current skills have been evaluated.
Personal Skills Standard Requirements Evaluation of Current State
Communication Skills Excellent verbal and non-
verbal communication skills
Medium verbal skills and lack
in effective behavioural
communication
Leadership Ability Active and real-ground
leadership approach
Medium leadership skill but
weak in deploying
transformation and visionary
skills of management
Listening Skill Active Listening skill Active and satisfactory
Planning and Organising High skills Medium
Analysis skills Critical Analysis skill Good
Problem Solving Critical Analysis-based Medium
Professional Knowledge Practical and Theoretical Good
Self-Management Experience-based self-
management
Weak
Team Work Excellent Medium
Technology Skills Medium Strong
Time Management Excellent Good
2.2 Own development needs and activities for meeting them, improvement of skills
For effective continuation of functional responsibilities as the Assistant Manager at
Travelodge Hotel, development of personal skills is a must at this stage and thus, based on
the above evaluation framework of personal skills, importance of developing certain personal
skills is realised. This is clear from the evaluation that the following areas of personal skills
are required to be developed.
Professional Skills Ways of Improving
Overall Communicating Skill For development of verbal communication skills,
language training on English will be effective. In
addition training of non-verbal communication is
required

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Leadership skills This will be important to communicate more with
employees and staff at the hotel along with
discussing different issues and solutions with
colleagues. This will; help developing the skills
of directing, motivating and leading people
(Johns, 2017)
Planning and Organising Taking more active parts in different
organizational functions and strategic
development related decision making will help
Problem Solving More active involvement in various issues and
problem analysis and finding effective solution
measures (Noeet al., 2017)
Self-management For developing the skill of self-management,
effective practise of problem analysis, finding
solutions and implementation will be important,
followed by applying self-reflection strategy for
finding gaps in performance (Wheeler and
Richey, 2014)
Skills of Team Work Higher involvement in group-based operations
and taking training of effective team work will be
effective
2.3 Development opportunities for meeting current and future defined needs
For fulfilling the needs of skills development in desired areas, this is important to have
adequate availability of certain specific opportunities inside and outside of the Travelodge
Hotel. The availability of the opportunities might be as follows,
Areas of Development Opportunity of Development
Communication Skills Within the hotel, there is scope of communicating
with customers by applying skills of English.
Also there is the opportunity of involving with
different community groups and discussion
different topics with them in English.
Leadership Indulging in active leading the staff and
employees in all their job operations in the hotel
and reading books as well as online websites on

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
biography and professional careers of different
business leaders will be great opportunity
(Gannon etal., 2015)
Planning and Organising Reviewing own performance in past activities
and following guidelines by senior management
for reorganising the gaps and mistakes in efforts
will help in developing more effective planning
for future and organising capability of scheduled
needs (Knapp et al., 2017)
Team Work Making arrangement of organised team efforts
for conducting meetings and arranging
conference will help in higher involvement with
teams and thereby the ability of encouraging
members for doing their best
Problem Solving There are opportunities like using tabular formats
and graph based presentation of data regarding
different issues in the hotel, as this will help in
performing critical analysis of the facts and
thereby reaching to possible solutions
Self-management In various professional as well as family matters,
there is scope of applying models of self-
reflection (Kolb’s and Gibbs’) for self-evaluation
of performance, efforts and related gaps
(Reynolds and Vince, 2017).
2.4 Devising personal and professional plan for development on the basis of identified
needs
What are the Needed Skills How to Develop the skills When to Develop
Communicating Skill By joining training of
communication development
and encouraging positive
interactions with potential local
and international customers at
Travelodge Hotel. One of the
most important means will be to
develop command over English
4 months

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
as international communicative
medium
Leadership skills The main ways will involve
detail observation of operational
approaches and strategies of
senior leaders within and
outside the Travelodge Hotel
and studying essential qualities
of eminent business leaders
4 months
Planning and Organising Through applying effective
prior-knowledge based concepts
regarding possible issues in
different areas of operations at
various situation, followed by
effective analysis of sources of
issues and organising the root
causes for reaching remedy
3 months
Problem Solving By going deeper to the
problems and its root sources
and apply effective eradication
method of problems like
isolation, separation or
replacement
3 months
Self-management By learning the principles of
self-management followed by
eminent business leaders
through reading books,
followed by turning those
principles into effective
application in real life will be an
important means. Moreover,
strategic application of self-
reflection process will be ideal
for improving self-management
areas
4 months
Team Work Through indulging in active 5 months

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
discussion of different issues
arising in the hotel with staff
and form specific groups with
3-4 staff for taking care of
different level of issues and
reporting the outcome the
management
Task 3
LO 3: Implementation and Review of own professional and personal development plan
3.1 Process and activities needed for implementing development plan
For effective implementation of the development plan, this will be important to consider
appropriate processes and activities to be adopted. For this purpose, this will be vital to adopt
the following processes. As stated byLongworth (2019), first of all this will be very important
to take admission in a training institute of Communicative Development and language
Training. Along with involving in learning enhanced skill of communication development,
this will be vital to engage behavioural communication expert for enhancement of behaviour
based communication skill while working as the Assistant manager at Travelodge Hotel. In
additional time after professional working hours, this will be important to arrange sufficient
time for online searching for operational processes and strategies followed by different
business leaders along with engaging into effective reading and learning operations (Prayag
and Hosany, 2015). This study will involve processes adopted by leaders in hotel and
hospitality industry as well as many other sectors.
In case of developing planning and organising capability, the most effective process will be
to study and apply different models of strategic planning and organising process in business.
This will involve the following models,
 Issue-based Model of Strategic Planning
 Basic Strategic Planning and Organising Model
 Scenario-based Strategic Model of Planning and Organising