Personal and Professional Development Plan for Hotel Manager

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Personal and Professional Development
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................6
Introduction......................................................................................................................................6
1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning. Which approach can be more suitable for you
or your staff at Travelodge hotel.....................................................................................................6
1.2 Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts could be
encouraged at Travelodge. In this question, you should say how you as a manager can encourage
lifelong learning at Travelodge Hotel..............................................................................................7
1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to you as an assistant manager and the Travel
Lodge. Your judgment has to be supported by relevant evidence or examples..............................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................11
2.1 Evaluate your own current skills and competencies against professional standards for a hotel
manager and against organisational objectives of Travelodge Hotel............................................11
2.2 Identify your own development needs and the activities required to meet them. Which of
your skills may need to be improved? How are you going to improve or gain these skills?........12
2.3 Identify development opportunities to meet your current and future defined needs. Which
opportunities are available for you inside or outside of the hotel to improve your skill
development needs?.......................................................................................................................14
2.4 Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needs. In this task,
you need to prepare a ‘plan’ for personal and professional development. In this plan, you need to
mention three issues: ‘what’ are your needed skills; ‘how’ are you going to develop the skills;
and ‘when’ are you going to develop intended skills?..................................................................14
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Task 3.............................................................................................................................................15
3.1 Discuss the processes and activities required to implement the development plan that you
prepared for yourself in task..........................................................................................................15
3.2. Undertake and document development activities as planned. In this task, you should
implement the development plan you prepared for yourself and then write down how you
implemented your plan..................................................................................................................16
3.3 Reflect critically on your own learning against original aims and objectives set in the
development plan. Did you really learn new skills at the level you aim for them?.......................16
3.4 Update the development plan that you prepared for yourself (covered in 2.4) based on the
feedback and evaluation................................................................................................................17
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................18
4.1- Select solutions to work-based problems...............................................................................19
4.2- Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels......................19
LO4 Be able to demonstrate acquired interpersonal and transferable skills.................................19
4.3 Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies.........................................................20
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................21
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Skill audit...........................................................................................................................9
Table 2: Development needs and activities...................................................................................10
Table 3: Personal and professional development plan..................................................................12
Table 4: Updated plan....................................................................................................................15
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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Kolb learning styles..........................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Self-managed and continuous learning is very significant for personal as well as professional
development of an individual (Bates, et al. 2016). An individual can seek to learn from various
sources and approaches. Personal and professional development is very significant for every
individual in order to grow and develop personal as well as professional life.
The present writing is segmented into for tasks. The first and foremost task of the report is
concerned about various approaches of self-managed learning and its benefits to the employees
of a renowned hotel, Travelodge. The next and second task outlines the different competencies
and skills set that are required for the manager of the cited organization. Moreover, the third,
fourth task is about the development of the personal and professional plan for individuals.
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Task 1
Introduction
The present task of this report is based on drafting an article that encourages the employees of
Travelodge for self-managed learning. It is a technique that motivates the individual to seek and
learn new things.
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 a process of initiating the process of learning by oneself. It is the act in
which an individual himself takes the responsibility of undertaking and managing the learning
activities (Cottrell, 2015). Self-managed learning is encouraged at every organization as it is
beneficial for both individuals as well as business. The benefits for individual include:
 Understanding and developing certain skills
 Self-awareness
 Dealing with ambiguity
 Personal development
On the other hand, the benefits of self-managed learning for an organization involves:
 Better work performance
 Ability to take more responsibilities
 Maintaining a positive and healthy relationship with others
 Ability to resolve conflicts and issues
The numerous approaches for self-managed learning are:
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Internet
This is the major source of self-managed learning that is widely used because of its various
advantages. In the present era of digitization, the internet is a tool that can be easily used to seek
information and knowledge and get updated in any field. Thus, it is considered as the essential
approach of self-managed learning. It is the most convenient tool that can be accessed anytime
from anywhere.
Seminars and conferences
These are also a way where it is possible to seek knowledge and enhance the communication
skills (Monty and Warren-Wenk, 2017). Apart from it, it is a platform to enhance the public
speaking abilities also. It helps in becoming a more efficient and confident public speaker, and
thus the competencies can be developed with this medium.
Social networking sites
Social media applications such as twitter and facebook allow people to follow the trend and
interact easily. Social media is used by all kinds of people with different backgrounds and culture
who have various experiences. Sharing and gaining experiences is also considered as an
approach for self-managed learning.
Considering Travelodge, the internet is the best suitable approach that can be adopted by the
cited organization in order to encourage self-managed learning. The employees of Travelodge
can use the internet to learn innovative ideas, concepts, and industrial and market information,
etc.
Furthermore, the internet enables to learn new and useful things, develops logical thinking,
enhance communication skills, etc. This will further enhance the knowledge base of the staff
members of Travelodge and also their enthusiasm level.
1.2 Propose ways in which lifelong learning in personal and professional contexts could be
encouraged at Travelodge. In this question, you should say how you as a manager can encourage
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lifelong learning at Travelodge Hotel.
Lifelong learning is an ongoing and continuous process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values,
and understanding throughout life (DiPaola and Wagner, 2018). Lifelong learners plan and
assess their learning. They also emphasize on using different learning strategies for different
situations. There are various benefits of lifelong learning:
 Maintaining and improving skills
 Job retention
 Creates a hunger for more knowledge
 Nurtures curious minds
 Enhances memory and increases self-confidence
Lifelong learning is very beneficial for personal and professional development, and there are
various ways present by which it can be encouraged.
Allow employees to self-direct their learning
Identifying the interest area of the employees and then encouraging them to self-direct their
learning is the best possible way to promote lifelong learning.
Connect employees with inspirational mentors
In order to support the learners, providing them with mentors can be a useful step. For this,
formal mentorship programs can be encouraged, and in these programs or sessions, it is quite
convenient to meet more experienced colleagues and learn from them. The support of mentors
can surely help in the development and enhancing enthusiasm level.
Building a library for learning resources
Employees will feel self-motivated towards learning when they are available with resources. In
the organization, a corner can be developed for the professional development library. The library
can include books about self-development, self-improvement, general knowledge, etc.
As a manager of Travelodge, lifelong learning can be encouraged by effective communication
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and leadership. With effective leadership skills, it is possible to motivate the employees by
clearly communicating the benefits of lifelong learning. Moreover, the learning of the employee
should be considered as an achievement. Appreciation and recognition is the essential way to
encourage employees. Apart from this, effectively interact and establishing a healthy relationship
with the employees is significant to motivate. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the manager of
Travelodge to make employees excited and curious by developing various methods of learning.
1.3 Evaluate the benefits of self-managed learning to you as an assistant manager and the Travel
Lodge. Your judgment has to be supported by relevant evidence or examples.
Self-managed learning is a continual process of self-management, self-motivation, self-
monitoring, and self-modification (Sanders, 2017). It has been assessed that self-managed
learning has various benefits to the employees as well as the organization. As an assistant
manager of Travelodge, there can be numerous benefits to the organization of self-managed
learning.
Figure 1: Kolb learning styles
(Source: Simply psychology, 2019)
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Creation of better work performance
Self-managed learning is beneficial for Travelodge as it enhances the knowledge base and skill
set of employees. Enhancement in communication and leadership skills is useful in order to
meeting the expectation level of customers of Travelodge. For instance, when the employees of
Travelodge have effective communication and leadership skills, the identification of needs and
expectations of the clients is possible, and thus, effective quality service can be offered.
Moreover, with effective communication skills, the complaints and negative feedbacks of the
clients can be easily identified.
Presentation skills
A well informed and knowledgeable employee is able to present himself in an effective manner.
Thus, in this way, self-managed learning enhances the presentation skills, and a good
presentation increases the value of anything which helps attract the customers.
Reduction in cost of formal learning
Those employees who are dedicated to self-managed learning, Travelodge need not conduct any
formal training and development sessions. This is cost as well as time effective for the
organization (Hansman, 2016). Thus, when the employees of Travelodge are self-aware and self-
motivated about the benefits of self-managed learning, the organization is not required to
emphasize on arranging training and development sessions.
Furthermore, some other benefits of self-managed learning for the cited organization are that the
employees themselves feel motivated and confident so the work efficiency can be improved.
Moreover, the employees become able to take more responsibilities, and it facilitates establishing
and maintaining a strong and healthy relationship within the entity.
Conclusion
From the above article, it can be concluded that internet, seminars, conferences, workshops,
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social media are the various approaches of self-managed learning. Also, the concept is beneficial
for individual as well as organization. Apart from this, lifelong learning is significant for the
individual in personal and professional development and there are numerous ways that can be
adopted by Travelodge.
Task 2
2.1 Evaluate your own current skills and competencies against professional standards for a hotel
manager and against organisational objectives of Travelodge Hotel.
In order to successfully implement work operations, evaluation of own skills and competencies is
significant. For any job profile, having a skill set as per the requirements and professional
standards of the organization is essential (Lindsay and Floyd, 2017). Thus, as a manager of
Travelodge, it is necessary for me to identify and assess my skills and capabilities so that the
objective and goals of the organization can be attained. After my self-assessment or evaluation,
my major skills and competencies include communication skills, team working skills, time
management skills, passion for customer service, commercial awareness etc. Hence, in order to
work as a hotel manager, I am required to utilize the core competencies in an appropriate
manner.
Table 1: Skill audit
My current skills Professional standards Travelodge and job role
objectives
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