Personal Development: A Travelodge Case Study on Skill Enhancement

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Personal and professional development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1: Article.................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
2.1, M1- Evaluate own current skills and competencies against professional standards and
organisational objectives.............................................................................................................6
2.2- Identify own development needs and the activities required to meet them.........................7
2.3- Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs....................8
2.4, M3- Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needs........9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................11
3.1. Discuss the processes and activities required to implement the development plan that you
prepared for yourself in task 2.4................................................................................................11
3.2. Undertake and document development activities as planned.............................................11
3.3. Reflect critically on your own learning against original aims and objectives set in the
development plan.......................................................................................................................12
3.4, M2, M3 Update the development plan that you prepared for yourself (covered in 2.4)
based on the feedback and evaluation.......................................................................................13
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................15
4.1, M1- Select solutions to work-based problems....................................................................15
4.2, M1, M3, Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels. . .17
4.3, M1 - Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies...........................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
Personal and professional development is being concerned as learning and growth throughout the
career. It is necessary for individual for having continuous learning and develops to keep the
skills and knowledge for applying in the current workplace. Current task will focus on
performing personal and professional development being the assistant manager in Hotel
Travelodge. This would enable working with effective knowledge and skills and continue to
work legally, safely and efficiently. Current report is being divided into different task and in that
first task is article giving brief of self managed learning and lifelong learning in workplace.
Second task elaborate about giving evidence on personal development portfolio. Third task will
be based on developing the personal and professional development plan to develop as the
assistant manager. Fourth task will highlight some of the solutions to work based problems and
essential use of time management strategies.
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Task 1: Article
Self managed learning and lifelong learning in personal development
30Th January, 2019
(By: XYZ)
Introduction
In this task discussion is made regarding self- managed learning and lifelong learning that enable
a individual to improve the chance for developing and accessing different range personal and
professional skills for promoting career and future career development.
1.1. Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning. Which approach can be more suitable
for you or your staff at Travelodge Hotel?
Self-managed learning is being concerned as managing the own learning to achieve the clear
goals, aims and objectives. In addition, the learning is being enhanced by the individual from the
environment and then is applied in achieving the experience at the workplace (Cunningham,
2017). Learning help to independently increase the confidence and create conditions where
people can engage in likely manner. There are some of the approaches in self-managed learning
that includes:
Research Learning: Individuals can perform different research through different sources for
learning on suitable subject. These sources includes online websites, articles, videos, research
papers, etc that help to learn regarding achieving suitable goals. This would help individuals in
Travelodge to develop theoretical knowledge by learning through reading and observing.
Learning from surrounding: Within Travelodge, employees are being offered the team task in
which they interact with each other. Each team member possesses some of the strengths and
different learning capabilities (Graves, 2013). This is effective for employees to adopt those
skills and learn from the surrounding to improve within the workplace.
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Social networks: Social media is being effective that enhances the ability to get more useful
information, to connect with the learning groups and also more systems of education. It is one of
the cheap tools where individual find interesting to learn and offer multiple opportunities of
learning.
With the growing technology, it can be recommended that social network can be the best
approach that can be adopted in Travelodge to have wide platform to learn and increase
interested learning. This would develop the essential skills of individual and they would apply in
the current work context.
1.2. Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts could be
encouraged at Travelodge.
Lifelong learning is being concerned undertaking activities that would develop learning
throughout the life with the objective of improving key skills and knowledge with personal
development and employment related perspective (Aspin, et.al., 2012). This can learn to provide
better opportunities and improve the quality of working. Some of the ways through which
lifelong learning can be encouraged in Travelodge includes:
Learning through cycle: One of the greatest learning styles by Kolb is effective where
individual learn from different stages. Initial stage is being concerned as having the concrete
experience of doing or learning from the activity. Then reflection from the observation is being
given to review the experience and learn from the following. Then conclusion is being presented
that would include learning from the experience and at the end the learning is being applied
within current workplace (Thrun and Pratt, L. 2012). This would encourage the learning for
lifelong and leave greater impact on personal development.
Continuous learning: This includes learning through expanding the learning ability by regular
up gradation of skills and help in increasing the knowledge. Continuous learning is effective to
successfully adapt the changing work and meet with the workplace demands (Schuetze and
Slowey, 2013). This way would be effective for individual to have constant expansion in skills
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and developing skill set through learning and increasing knowledge.
1.3. Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to you as an assistant manager and the
Travel Lodge.
Being an assistant manager, there are different benefits of self managed to me to avail the better
opportunities in near future. Some of the benefits includes:
Self actualisation:Being a manager, self managed learning will help me to assess my own skills
and potentialities. In future, I will be able to learn effectively, develop interaction with my team
and would help me to improve my current weakness with effective utilisation of current strengths
(Michaelsen and Sweet, 2012).
Job opportunity: With self managed learning I would be able to develop different skills that are
effective for achieving better career opportunities. With this, I will develop different kinds of
skills and will enable me to grow as the better personality. This will help me to gain better
positioning in future with extensive monetary benefits.
Achieving targets: Self managed learning will help me to analyse the key weaknesses. With this,
I would be able to set some of the targets such as developing interpersonal skills, better position
such as senior manager, etc (Bourner, 2012). Such learning will boost the confidence and
opportunity in achieving such targets in near future.
Conclusion
From the above task, it can be concluded that an individual ability to organize, develop and
manage various approaches for improving his or her overall performance helps in attaining
career development. However, it is the responsibility of the organisation to support the
employees for developing their professional and personal skills through proper training
programs.
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Task 2
2.1,Evaluate own current skills and competencies against professional standards and
organisational objectives M1
Current task is based on assessing the current skills and matching with the professional
standards. Below is the evaluation of skills and competencies and also is being matched with the
roles and responsibilities of the Hotel manager in Travelodge.
My Current Skills
needed to improve
How Am I doing Professional standards Travelodge and job
role objectives
How to enhance
Communication skills
I am trying to
communicate with
the team but still I
need to be more
confident about
verbal
presentation
skills. I need to
improve in near
future
It is effective for
demonstrate effective
verbal presentation
skills to communicate
with team and also with
the customers
Hotel manager is
being responsible to
manage the entire
operations of the
Hotels
How to develop
Personal and
interpersonal
To some extent I
am able to
manage myself,
the activities as
per time and also
balance the work
life. But still
sometimes I get
frustrated with
conditions
Having personal and
interpersonal skills is
effective for setting
blocks of time that will
valued in my future
projects in Hotel
It is necessary to take
actions that are
necessary to solve the
issues wherever it is
necessary and to
balance my personal
and professional life
for achieving
productivity in
Travelodge Hotel
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(Kwok and Xie, 2016).
Understand how to work
with people from a wide
range of backgrounds
and cultures
I am able to
communicate with
team but I am not
that capable to
manage the
people from
different
backgrounds
This is effective for me
to be a great judge to
assess the needs of
people and to maintain
balance in the
workplace
environment.
Manager is responsible
to motivate and inspire
each team member and
to be become the
greatest of managing
culture of the
workplace.
Appropriate solution (M1)
In the current report, self -managed learning and actions towards lifelong learning are one of the
best strategies to attain personal and professional growth. It is also important for manager of
Travelodge to continuously monitor the performances of employees for identifying the lacking
areas and take decisions to develop efficiency. It can be also analysed that Travelodge would
apply learning strategies that can be due to social networks, following Kolb cycle, giving regular
training, etc for increasing key competencies of employees.
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2.2- Identify own development needs and the activities required to meet them
Skills to improve Methods of development
How to enhance Communication skills I will work towards such skills for enhancing
communication by showing active participation
in oral presentations within my class. I will
also read more to have the confidence of
having stable and clear voice language.
How to develop interpersonal skills Communication skills are being required to
have the good delivery of information. I would
need to understand the time management skills
with taking advice from my mentor and by
seeking to different internet sources to keep the
balance between my personal and professional
life. This is effective to avoid the situations of
stressful conditions between personal life and
professional life (Hildebrand, 2018).
Understand how to work with people from a
wide range of backgrounds and cultures
I need to develop more interaction and
coordination with the people that will help me
to understand range of people needs and
backgrounds to achieve the team working
skills. I require more confident to improve my
judgement skills.
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2.3- Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs
Travelodge offers different opportunities and programs for employee development and also
organises events for finding development of the employees. Being an assistant manager, I need
to develop more skills and knowledge with my senior manager that will help me to deliver
quality of customer services. From the above task, I need to develop different needs and bring
improvement in some of the areas such as communication and team working. To become active
listener and communicator, I need to develop the practical skills by working with my mentor. I
will ask my manager to support me in developing such skills and give some of the tips. However,
some of the developmental opportunities include:
Working with seniors: In order to develop the above stated skills, it is necessary for me to
observe the working of my senior managers and observe that how he manages the meetings,
team and also its personal life. I will be able to develop better learning habits and working styles
that I can apply in near future to become more efficient. Currently I need to develop different
skills in achieving the key goals and objectives.
Future actions:Future needs include developing the above stated skills and for this I will be
more focussed towards my work and develop different kinds of skills. In addition, I would
recommend my senior managers to organise more training and developmental programs to
develop more knowledge and skills in the workplace (Zepeda, 2013).
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2.4, M3- Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needs
Development
Objectives
Priority Activities to be
undertaken
Resources Target
Start Date
Target
End Date
Criteria for Success
How to enhance
Communication
skills
High Research into better
vocabulary
development,
presentation skills and
better goals to achieve
in near future.
Would request my
manager to provide
guide regarding
improving my
communication
skills. Manager
would become the
best mentor to
achieve success
1/01/19 1/02/19 Will participate in
regular meeting with
the manager and I
would take regular
feedbacks from them
after participating in
sessions with
manager
How to develop
interpersonal skills
Very high Will try to manage the
work on time. I will
create per day to do
list and mark all the
activities that I need
to complete in a day.
Speak to some
educational
institution to guide
me how to work on
time and speak to
my manager who
can teach me some
techniques.
5/2/19 5/3/19 I will ask my mentors
and senior managers
to give feedback
regarding my
performance. Also i
will look towards
online library of
matching my current
performance and the
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requirement of
interpersonal skills in
manager
Understand how to
work with people
from a wide range
of backgrounds and
cultures
High Try to interact more in
team tasks and talk to
each employees and
try to understand their
needs
I will attend
sessions on online
for better
judgements. Also
self help can be
effective by going
through local
sources and having
online researches
7/3/19 7/4/19 I would observe the
develop connections
with team members
and will take
feedbacks from my
managers regarding
my decision making
skills.
Appropriate findings (M3)
In the current report, it can be found in every task is the need of personal and professional development on regular basis. Travelodge is
one of the leading organisations but is still facing some of the challenges that can be solved with applying some of the effective work
based problems. I also found that there are different strengths and weakness in my current performance. To overcome the weakness
and find development, it is necessary to have well structured personal development plan to achieve more skills and capabilities. I will
strictly follow such plan and monitor the progress on regular basis to develop as the better personality.
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