Professional Development Plan: Holiday Inn General Manager Position

This report presents a detailed professional development plan aimed at achieving a general manager position at a Holiday Inn hotel. It begins with an introduction outlining career goals and the importance of structured planning. The report then breaks down the professional development plan into key components, including self-assessment, SMART goals, strategies, resource allocation, and timelines. The plan emphasizes gaining managerial experience and continuous skill development. Furthermore, the report analyzes a job interview experience for a trainee manager position, highlighting the types of questions asked, the assessment of both technical and soft skills, and the importance of honesty and clear communication. The conclusion emphasizes the value of a well-designed development plan in achieving professional targets and the insights gained from the interview process. References to relevant books and journals are also included.

Professional Development
Plan and Interview Process
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................3
P5 Professional Development plan.........................................................................................3
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................5
P6 Job Interview.....................................................................................................................5
P7 Key strength and weaknesses of applied interview process..............................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Every person has certain aims and targets that they set to achieve in life. It could be some
personal target or professional target. Professional targets generally are around some designation
that the person aims or some other professional developments such as increasing income,
learning new skills, setting up a business, etc. Such targets become easy when a person prepares
a structured professional development plan that helps individual identify own skills and required
strategies (Anghel-Vlad, 2018). This report is prepared with the target of developing professional
development plan for achieving general manager position in Hotel Holiday Inn, London. Holiday
Inn is a British-owned American brand of hotels. A step by step and well-structured plan for the
same target is prepared below. Also, presented below is observation of the managerial interview
undertaken at Holiday Inn for lower managerial position which would serve as a stepping stone
to achieve ultimate target.
Task 3
P5 Professional Development plan
A professional development plan is a roadmap containing a list of actionable steps, skills and
knowledge that could help a person reach their aspired stage in career and life to achieve
professional targets ( Johnson and Chaudhuri, 2019). A professional development plan to achieve
the targeted managerial position at Hotel Holiday Inn follows through below mentioned steps:
 Self-Assessment – This step involves self-evaluation of one’s own interests and
skills according to the target or aimed position. I am interested in achieving
managerial position at Hotel Holiday Inn and I fairly believe that I possess sound
technical and soft skills required for that position. It is a leadership role and I
possess leadership quality as I have good communication skills, interpersonal
skills, team building skills, financial skills, customer service skills, technological
skills, etc. and I’m willing and working to become exceptional in these skills.
 Goals – This step involves setting up of SMART goals that will make the target
structured and trackable. It helps in prioritizing and achieving them one by one.
Specific – I want to achieve general manager position at Hotel Holiday Inn London.
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Measurable – I will apply for junior managerial positions at various Holiday Inn
hotels, London initially to gain experience. Getting selected in any would be my
first step towards achieving my long term target.
Achievable – This target is achievable as I possess all the relevant skills,
educational qualifications and experience. All I need to do is to keep brushing my
skills so that I stay relevant all the time.
Relevant – I always wanted to be a leader and with my interest in hospitality, I
chose to join a hotel and since, Holiday Inn is one of the best hotel chains in
London, I want to join it as a manager.
Timely – To be a general manager, I believe I possess necessary education and
skills, yet I lack in experience. So, I aim to gain some practical experience and
then, within timeframe of 5 years I aim to achieve my target.
 Strategies – This step involves all the approaches that one take to ensure that
targets are achieved (Cheng and Yi, 2018). To achieve my target, most important is
to gain enough real-life managerial experience and then comes the priority to
regularly brushing up my skills and earning new certificates that would expediate
the process.
 Resources – This step involves all those options that will help in achieving targets.
Skills building workshops, webinars, current trends surfing, etc. will help in
keeping my skills updated. My aim is long term and for it, I need to gain
experience by working at lower managerial levels. This time I can utilise in
building network and professional associations that might later help in achieving
my set target.
 Timelines – This step urges to break long term plans into short term targets and
milestones (Safavi and Karatepe, 2018). This helps in avoiding lagging,
procrastination and helps in reaching milestones, updating strategies or changing
goals. My timeline to achieve my long-term aim includes joining one of the Hotel
Holiday Inn in London within six months at some lower managerial position. Then,
within next one year, I plan to learn all the required application of my managerial
skills and other experiences which will help at managerial level. In next one year, I
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plan to work on my skills based on my work experience and develop my network
that can help me achieve general manager position as soon as possible.
Task 4
P6 Job Interview
As decided in timeline, first short-term target is to apply at a lower managerial position in
Hotel Holiday Inn to gradually gain experience that will help in achieving targeted general
manager position. Below mentioned is the brief questions and answers and observations from
one of the interviews taken for trainee manager position at one of The Hotel Holiday Inn.
Interviewer asked questions which ranged from personality test to job related and skill
based (Shen and Zhang, 2017). First personality test was taken and questions such as introduce
yourself, what are your strengths and weaknesses, how are you planning to tackle your
weaknesses that it doesn’t hamper your professional performance, why did you choose Holiday
Inn, previous work experience, how would you establish balance between organisational goals
and personal targets, etc. Then, job related questions were asked in which managerial skills were
tested such as what is customer service for you, what is the most important function to be
discharged by a manager of a hotel, how good are you working with a team, how would you
handle an upset client in such a way that both client is happy as well as no harm is done to
organisation culture, reputation and staff, how would you have helped hotel recover from
business environmental downslides such as pandemic business losses, if you have been in
management, what changes you would like in hotel’s operations and finances to make both
customer experience and hotel revenues increase, etc.
P7 Key strength and weaknesses of applied interview process
Interview questions tested not just my academic knowledge but also application of various soft
skills and presence of mind which would be required to carry out during discharge of my
professional duties (Boella, 2017). First, of all when you wear formal clothes for interview, it
automatically gives rise to a professional feeling inside you. I am a fairly confident person but
taking an interview that would be stepping stone for my main target, had made me little nervous
but I was able to not making that nervousness shown on my face and then, it was not difficult for
me to face interviewer and answer the questions.
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When I was asked questions, which were based to assess my personality, I could listen to
the interviewer patiently and was clear in my mind what to answer and how to answer and I
answered them with all honesty which shows that I possess clarity of thoughts and is able to
communicate my thoughts to the interviewer in a constructive, clear and concise manner. It was
also reflected in interviewer also complimenting my communication skills. Next set of questions
were directed towards assessing my managerial and leadership skills and testing my academic
knowledge (Sandstrom and Reynolds, 2020). I faltered in some academics related question but
was honest enough to accept which was appreciated by interviewer that I did not try to mislead
or waste time and energy of both. In the situational and scenario-based questions, I took a little to
contemplate on the issue and then suggested the course of action that I would have taken, have I
been in that situation. Interviewer later informed that I was not being judged on the basis of my
answers or the course that I had chosen, but on the basis that how I was applying various
managerial skills such as interpersonal skills, customer service skills, problem solving skills,
time management skills, etc. in that team-based situation. I was satisfied with myself that I was
able to explain my point of view, even in the case when I had to explain how I plan to deal with
my weaknesses and shortcomings. Biggest takeaways from this interview for me was to discover
that it is absolutely normal to feel nervous during interview but we shall not let that nervousness
get to our heads and also, we shall be absolutely honest about our personality and thoughts with
interviewer who will otherwise, sooner or later will see through our façade. I was happy and
satisfied with my overall performance and felt glad when interviewed echoed the same thoughts.
I was told that I possess good managerial skills and had it been real job interview, I would have
been seriously considered for the post.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that a well-designed professional development
plan can make it easy for an individual to achieve professional targets. Its well-designed
structure takes through a journey end result of which is the achievement of the ultimate target.
Also, concluded was the finding that interview process is an eye-opening journey to test about
knowledge, skills and experience that an individual possesses, based on which it is decided,
whether individual is capable enough to hold that position or need more skills that would
improve presence of mind that is needed to carry out any job.
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References
Books and Journals
Anghel-Vlad, S., 2018. Comparative Analysis of the Performance Evaluation of the Human
Resources in the Hotel Industry. Revista de Management Comparat Internațional. 19(2).
pp.175-186.
Boella, M.J., 2017. Human resource management in the hotel and catering industry. Taylor &
Francis.
Cheng, J.C. and Yi, O., 2018. Hotel employee job crafting, burnout, and satisfaction: The
moderating role of perceived organizational support. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 72. pp.78-85.
Park, S., Johnson, K.R. and Chaudhuri, S., 2019. Promoting work engagement in the hotel
sector: review and analysis. Management Research Review.
Safavi, H.P. and Karatepe, O.M., 2018. High-performance work practices and hotel employee
outcomes. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Sandstrom, J.K. and Reynolds, D.E., 2020. Leading a successful hotel: A look at the general
manager’s ability to utilize multiple leadership styles. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 89. p.102399.
Shen, C. and Zhang, Y., 2017. Introduction of Oral Presentation and Job Interview Preparation.
In Food Microbiology Laboratory for the Food Science Student (pp. 91-95). Springer,
Cham.
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