Personal and Professional Development Plan for Hotel Manager

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Personal and Professional
Development
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning......................................................................2
1.2 Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts could be
encouraged...................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to the individual and organisation..............4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Evaluate own current skills and competencies against professional standards and
organisational objectives.............................................................................................................4
2.2- Identify own development needs and the activities required to meet them.........................5
2.3- Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs....................6
2.4- Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needs...............8
LO3................................................................................................................................................10
3.1- Discuss the processes and activities required to implement the development plan...........10
3.2- Undertake and document development activities as planned.............................................10
3.3- Reflect critically on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the
development plan.......................................................................................................................11
3.4- Update the development plan based on feedback and evaluation......................................12
LO4................................................................................................................................................14
4.1- Select solutions to work-based problems...........................................................................14
4.2- Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels..................14
4.3- Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies....................................................16
M1. Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions................................................16
M2. Select/ design and apply appropriate methods/ techniques................................................16
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M3. Present and communicate appropriate findings.................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19
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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Kolb’s learning cycle.......................................................................................................3
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Evaluation of skills...........................................................................................................5
Table 2: SWOT analysis..................................................................................................................5
Table 3: Development opportunities...............................................................................................6
Table 4: personal and professional development plan....................................................................8
Table 5: Development activities....................................................................................................11
Table 6: Development plan based on feedback and evaluation.....................................................12
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Introduction
Personal and professional development plays important role in managing the overall
performance of the employees as well as to enhance the growth of the individual. The current
report will consider the case study of Hotel Traevlodge which is a leading hotel in UK and
therefore the following report will discuss on how self-managed learning can enhance lifelong
development. It will support evaluating the skills of manager and will develop personal and
professional development plan. In addition to this, it will identify process for implementing plan
as well as reflection of own learning. Last section of the report will highlight various solutions to
work-based problems, time-management strategies and communication styles.
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LO1
1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning
Self-managed learning is the process that supports the individual to increase the competencies
related to specific job profile. Self-learning can be managed by undertaking various types of
approaches within the hotel industry. Self-realization is one of the important approaches for self-
managed learning that supports the individual by focusing on future trends in context to job
profile. Hotel Travelodge has higher focus over providing customer satisfaction and therefore
setting of goals and objectives is considered as one of the important approaches’ self-managed
learning. Along with self realization and setting of goals and objectives, there are many various
other approaches that focus on either learning through research or others (Cunningham, 2017).
Seminars and conferences are one of the important approaches where individual could learn
from experience of others and can implement in future for gaining better opportunities within the
organization. This can support the staff members as well as managers to attain confidence while
dealing with consumers. Internet is another source that supports enhancing learning related to
staff management as well as help in identifying the current trend within hospitality industry. The
knowledge and information gained from the internet can be shared at the workplace for attaining
organizational objectives. In addition to this, social media networks are found to be appropriate
in connecting with customers, other hotel staff, etc. for enhancing the own skills. Bulletin boards
can be used for displaying thoughts and ideas which can be identified and support self-learning.
Gaining appropriate information from sources such as internet as well as social media networks
are effective in attaining specific goals and objectives by manager of Travelodge.
Kolb’s learning cycle
The theory is effective in providing knowledge at various stages within the Travelodge
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Figure 1: Kolb’s learning cycle
(Source: Saul McLeod, 2017)
With the help of this theory, managers and staff members can gain the information by identifying
the performance of others at the stage of ‘diverging’. At the stage of Assimilating, staff members
within hospitality industry can successfully develop their understanding along with clear
explanations (Tomkins and Ulus, 2016). Staff members of Travelodge can implement their
practical understanding at them by dealing with customers at the stage of ‘Converging’ while last
stage of ‘Accommodating’ has higher focus over experimental approaches in spite of theoretical.
1.2 Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts could be
encouraged
Lifelong learning supports the individual to develop in both personal and professional manner.
Setting of goals whether it is the short or long term encourages an individual to scale up their
skills. Travel and tourism sector is the growing sector and therefore long and short term goals is
beneficial in providing direction to staff members within the Travelodge (Xia et.al.2017). In
addition to this, situations such as work pressure, psychological challenge, etc contribute towards
continues process of learning which in turn support the managers and staff member of Travelodge to
develop themselves in personal and professional context.
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Lifelong Learning can also be enhanced by implementing knowledge attained at the time of
gaining higher education. For an example, management skills learned within the universities can
be implemented within Travelodge that further contribute towards personal and professional
growth of the individual. Along with this, credit accumulation and transfer schemes is the
another important process associated with lifelong learning that is effective in collecting credit in
context to learning as per the qualification. Apprenticeship is the kind of job training that support
the individual to gain appropriate knowledge related to professional and personal development.
1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to the individual and organisation
Benefits to the Hotel Travelodge
The organization gets the benefits of working with highly skilled employees with dynamic
knowledge and potential. Involvement of dedicated personalities within the organization smooths
the process of decision making (Keep, 2017). In addition to this, business with greater number
of employees who possess self-managed learning, then Travelodge can gain competitive
advantage in the market by bringing innovation in its existing products and services as which
will put positive influence on its brand name. Such employees can also act as a role model for
other employees and support enhancing their learning behaviour as well.
Benefits to individual
Individual with self-managed learning attitude are liable for claiming the higher positions within
the organizations. Their distinct level of confidence has helped the individual to gain opportunity
in comparison to competitors. In addition to this, errors at the workplace are minimised which is
beneficial for them to attain personal and professional growth.
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LO2
2.1 Evaluate own current skills and competencies against professional standards and
organisational objectives
Being the manager of the Hotel Travelodge, staff motivation is on higher priority which will
further contribute towards increasing satisfaction of customers and therefore evaluation of own
skills and competencies is important.
Table 1: Evaluation of skills
Professional Skills Current Rating Improvement methods
Leadership Skills 4 Staff motivation methods
Team building 4
Motivating staff members to
share their new ideas and
opinions
Time Management 4
Bt undertaking scheduling
activities as well as by setting
priorities to the assigned task.
Communication Skills 3
More interaction and
becoming the part of various
language classes (Bharwani
and Talib, 2017)
Presentation Skills 4
Developing confidence by
participating in public
conferences
Problem Solving Skills 3 Listening to others and in-
depth analysis of the situation
Motivational skills 3
By determining the
perception of staff members
and to take initiates to fulfil
the needs
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2.2- Identify own development needs and the activities required to meet them
SWOT analysis will support me to identify my own weaknesses and threats as well as strengths
and future opportunities that can be further utilised to meet organizational objectives.
Table 2: SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Team Building
 Time management Skills
 Problem Solving Skills
 Communication skills
Weakness
 Lack of command over different
languages
 Unable to undertake multiple tasks at
the same time
 Decision making
 Leadership Skills
Opportunities
 Promotions and increments
 More confidence can be developed
 Development of overall personality
 Greater Learning opportunities
Threats
 Increased competition
 Advance technology
 Modifications in various operational
process within hospitality sector
From the above SWOT analysis, it has been identified that there is greater need of learning new
languages for serving the customers from diverse cultures. Hotel Travelodge experience more
number of travellers during peak season and therefore there is greater need of managing multiple
activities for gaining the higher position. Language learning can be improved by joining
language classes and observing videos on internet. Multitasking can be enhanced by undertaking
number of tasks at the time of off season. Decision making and leadership skills can be improved
by focusing on staff motivation as well as by encouraging them to share their ideas and skills so
that decision making can be enhanced.
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2.3- Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs
With the help of SWOT analysis, current and future needs are identified by determining the
development opportunities. In this context, self-evaluation techniques that include reviews as
well as feedbacks are beneficial in determining the lacking areas that are to be improved by using
following approaches.
Table 3: Development opportunities
Opportunities
and Skills
Current
rating
Desired
Rating
Improvement Actions
Leadership Skills 4 4.5
Motivating staff member to work as per the
direction of leaders as well as by observing the
past decision making of leaders within the
organization.
Team building 4 5
This can be improved by encouraging individuals
to share ideas with each other’s and discuss the
issues with the team leaders (Zhang, 2017).
Time
Management 4 5
Identifying time management strategies such as
task prioritisation and scheduling of various
activities.
Communication
Skills 3 5
Hotel Travelodge deals with customers from
diverse origin and therefore learning of various
languages is important which can be attained by
joining language learning classes.
Presentation
Skills 4 5 By participating confidently in presentations
more frequently.
Problem Solving
Skills 3 4 By enhancing the listening power and analysing
the issues for finding solutions
Training and development along with these improvement actions would be beneficial in
enhancing the skills of the individual as well as to attain business objectives.
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