Self-Managed Learning and Professional Growth at Travelodge Hotel

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report details a personal and professional development plan.

Personal and Professional Development
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Task 1 (LO1)....................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning. Which approach can be more suitable for you
or your staff at Travelodge Hotel?...................................................................................................5
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..............................................................................................6
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..............................6
Task 2 (LO2)....................................................................................................................................8
2.1. Evaluate your own current skills and competencies against professional standards for a hotel
manager and against organizational objectives of Travelodge Hotel..............................................8
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?..........9
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?.......................................................................................................................10
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?..................................................................11
Task 3 (LO3)..................................................................................................................................13
3.1. Discuss the processes and activities required to implement the development plan that you
prepared for yourself in task 2.4....................................................................................................13
2

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..................................................................................................................14
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?.......................14
3.4. Update the development plan that you prepared for yourself (covered in 2.4) based on the
feedback and evaluation................................................................................................................15
Task 4 (LO4)..................................................................................................................................17
4.1. Select solutions to work-based problems...............................................................................17
4.2. Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels......................17
4.3. Evaluate and use effective time-management strategies........................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................22
Reference List................................................................................................................................23
3

Introduction
The primary aim of personal and professional development is to help an individual in managing
its own learning and development throughout the whole career. It is very much important for
individuals to continue their learning process and equip the most appropriate skills and
knowledge in order to be most successful at the workplace or somewhere else. In this assignment
“Personal and Professional Development” with reference to the organization “Travelodge
Hotel,” the purpose is to understand how to become an effective and confident self-directed
employee. In this assignment, self-managed learning will be explained along with the
justification on how they can enhance lifelong growth and development. The different growth
and development opportunities will be recognized in order to address the current and future
defined requirements. A personal and professional development plan will also be devised in
order to reflect critically on own learning methods.
4

Task 1 (LO1)
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 defined as the specific process by which various individuals explore
different and appropriate ways in order to understand and learn various things or subjects for
professional or personal development (Cunningham, 2017). There are considered various
approaches to self-managed learning and these approaches are evaluated below as follows:
Seminars and conferences – It is possible for every individual to learn various things by being
present in these types of programs and events or understanding the importance of them. These
events or conferences tend to provide enormous knowledge and information driven by the
experiences of the experts and professionals in their own specific field (Rao et al., 2011).
 Social Media – Social media these days have played an important role in providing new
ideas and concepts. Many individuals tend to learn from these social media networks and
platforms via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and share their experiences and knowledge
with other individuals.
In the field of the hospitality industry, all the different approaches mentioned above will prove
to be more suitable for me and for the employees and staffs as well at Travelodge Hotel. This is
because every self-managed learning approach provides benefits and opportunities to personal
and professional development. These approaches will enhance my confidence level and of the
individual employees and staffs. It is obvious that high confidence level in any work field
enhances the performance of any individual via providing exceptional consumer services. The
adaptation of the different approaches will provide me with different concepts and ideas by
which I can excel in my future career.
5

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.
Lifelong learning is known as the self-motivated nonstop updating and attainment of required
skills and understanding that tends to contribute enormously to the personal and professional
development of an individual (Zuber-Skerritt and Teare, 2013). Being in the role of a manager,
cheering lifelong learning ensures that the individuals working at Travelodge Hotel are well
acquired with the required skills and provides the organization with the potential and the
contribution in order to be successful in the hospitality field. Self-reflective learning is known as
the specific way of assessing an individual and provides the individual with the understanding on
how to manage study or work. It is very much important for me to evaluate my own actions and
enhance my potential to be loyal and honest. Travelodge Hotel can definitely motivate their
employees and staffs by allocating tasks and specific responsibilities and by providing them with
the required guidance in order to accomplish he tasks. Feedback is considered as the main aspect
to this assessment as because it will provide both the employer and the employee with the
various opportunities to reflect on their own performance (Han et al., 2011).
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the specific term used to explain the actions
that the various hospitality experts and professionals involve in to improve and develop their
further potential and skills. CPD enables the learning method to be a proactive action that
provides the individuals with the potential to enhance their performance or efficiency at the
workplace.
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.
Learning and understanding via research is considered as an essential element of modern self-
determining learning. The ability or the potential to utilize the internet or the social networks
provide the individual with vast amount of data and information from different sources (Bjork et
al., 2013). A Personal Learning Environment comprises of various internet tools and assessments
that an individual can utilize or execute for learning and growth. Self-managed learning in
Travelodge Hotel helps in sustaining a variety of relationships that are specifically based on a
6

programme. These strong relationships include relationships with coaches, employees, and
mentors who provide expertise knowledge and information regarding the specific operating field.
Some of the benefits that self managed learning provide are as follows:
 Improves confidence level – Self-managed learning enhances the confidence level of the
individual employees and staffs that eventually leads to exceptional consumer service. High
confidence levels provides the individual with the opportunity to excel in any specific field of
work be it business or hospitality industry. For example, a self-managed learning tasks
performed by me during a hospitality project helped me to boost my confidence and this
resulted in the scheduled accomplishment of the tasks.
 Improves knowledge – Self-managed learning via seminars and conferences provides the
individual with the potential to generate new concepts and ideas at the Travelodge Hotel.
These successful concepts and ideas provide the individual with the required recognition at
the workplace and help them to excel at their workplace (Graves, 2013).
7

Task 2 (LO2)
2.1. Evaluate your own current skills and competencies against professional standards for a
hotel manager and against organizational objectives of Travelodge Hotel.
Introduction
In the first instance, I undertook two specific skills audit i.e. personal skills and problem-solving
skills. The audit of these two skills helped me to analyze and evaluate my own present skills. The
summarization of these skills areas for a general manager in relevance to the roles and
responsibilities for a hotel manager within Travelodge Hotel also helped me to recognize and
explore the professional standards for the individual skill areas.
My Current Skills Professional Standards Travelodge and Job Role
Objectives
Personal skills – I am a
supportive person possessing a
very gracious and friendly
attitude towards my
colleagues and team members.
I have a welcoming and
investigating aptitude and I am
able to contribute vital ideas in
a specific discussion.
It is important to demonstrate
the personal skills that are
related effectively to various
employees, interns, staffs and
other various professionals.
All employers’ value having
the most preferred personal
skills.
It is important to be passionate
about consumer service as it
considered as the most
essential part for the specific
job role.
Problem solving skills – My
main strength in this skill area
is that I can find more than
one alternative option for
solving a problem but
different opinions and
viewpoints tend to confuse
“Solving issues and problems
at the workplace promptly will
be and is definitely valued in
present and future
assignments.”
“Taking and executing actions
and measures in order to
resolve conflicts and issues
where it is required and
important”
The potential of being a fast
thinker and multitasked
8

me. Due to this, I am not able
to provide the desire
performance resulting in
discouragement.
Assistant Manager for
progression and development
at Travelodge Hotel
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?
Skills to be Developed Methods of Development
Personal skills I will work on this skill by cultivating a
positive outlook as because people incline
logically towards a manager who is positive
and cheerful in nature. This will motivate my
team members and other employees to respond
in a more positive manner. It is very much
important for me to acknowledge and
understand the opinions of other employees, as
it is one of the best methods of building loyalty
and trust in the minds of my team members. I
will also analyze up on more important skills
in order to build my confidence and convey a
real interest in my fellow colleagues.
Problem solving skills Good problem solving skills, for a proper and
effective information delivery. It is very much
important for me to work on my problem-
solving skills, as it tends to provide a definitive
sense of contentment and accomplishment. The
first step I need to abide by is to acknowledge
the right problem or issue as because then only
9

the appropriate solution will follow. I will
spend some time acknowledging the real issue
with my team in order to resolve the problems
effectively. Secondly, I need to be simple and
creative enough in order to generate the best
solution for the problem. Sometimes it will be
important for me to think of solutions from
different and creative perspectives.
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?
On 2nd September 2010, Travelodge Hotel took a big step in developing the various skills and
traits of the workers by inaugurating the UK’s first Skills Academy Training and Development
Centre for Hospitality (travelodge.co.uk, 2019).
 Current Needs – I observe that my present level is I can perform whatever it takes me to
succeed. I during my training days got a multi-filtered environment and that is why I am a
smart-learner. I presently require some skills associated with strategic organizing, self-
change and customized associations with colleagues.
 Future Needs – Opportunities are defined as the specific chances of building the growth of
an individual to a specific level of understanding. Skills play an important part in the lives of
every person in order to succeed in the race of life. It is important for me to renovate my
future skills and knowledge and have to change my level of thinking and imagination
concerned with my professional and personal lifestyle.
There are various opportunities available inside and outside the organization in order to improve
my skill development requirements and they are as follows:
 Clear communication of strategy – I have to clearly communicate the strategy and direction
of the organization among the individual staffs and employees of the organization. This will
10

help them to acknowledge their roles and responsibilities accordingly and work in alliance
with the organization’s goals and objectives.
 Socialize with people – I will have to socialize more with people outside the workplace as it
will provide me with the right confidence and opinions of different people.
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?
Developmen
t Objectives
Priority Activities
to be
undertake
n
Resource
s
Target
Start Date
Target
End Date
Criteria for
Success
To improve
on my
personal
skills
Very High Create a
strong
practice
regimen,
create a
reward
system and
measure the
progress
Public
speaking
classes,
seminars,
interaction
and
socializin
g tuitions
01/01/201
9
01/03/201
9
Make a plan
to resolve
the issue,
provide
relevant
explanation
s for my
answer
To improve
on my
problem-
solving skills
to become a
more
competent
quick thinker
Moderatel
y High
Inspect
possible
and positive
solutions,
act on
resolving
the issue, be
creative in
Problem-
solving
techniques
and
methods,
problem
solving
tutorials
01/04/201
9
01/07/201
9
Consult and
involve with
members
when taking
decisions,
feedbacks
from my
mentor
11

the solution and
speeches
Conclusion
In this section, I have conducted an audit of the two important skills. A personal and professional
development plan has been devised based on the explored requirements. Some various
development opportunities have been recognized in order to achieve the present and future
defined needs.
12