Unit 13 Personal and Professional Development Assignment - Hilton

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 13 Personal and Professional Development - Hilton
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

Personal and professional development refers to enhancement in the skills and knowledge of an individual. It helps the individual to acquire the desired position in the organisation and also stabilising the good behaviour with people in the common life as well. Personal development involves communication and interpersonal skills, the individual must be creative and self motivated, charismatic etc. Professional development includes the individual must be an active learner and manages the time properly so as to achieve the desired goals for the organisation. The unit 13 personal and professional development assignment - Hilton consists of the evaluating the approaches of self managed learning that will help in motivating the staff members of hotel Hilton. It also includes the ways through which lifelong learning can be encouraged at both personal and professional level and tells about how the self managed learning is going to benefit an individual as well as an organisation. Report also focuses on my own SWOT analysis as well as my development plan for improving and personal and professional level. At the end, the report will include the variety of styles of communication and in an appropriate manner at various levels. Finally, report includes the evaluation and use of effective time management marketing strategy.

Task 1

1.1 Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning

Self managed learning is the process through which an individual tries to acquire the knowledge through all the resources available to the individual. Through self managed learning the individual can achieve the desired position in the organization and also can enhance its skills. Self learning approach will allow the individual to extend its capabilities so as to achieve the goals through personal and professional development. Being an assistant manager at hotel Hilton, I have identified that the hotel conducts the self managed learning programmes that helps the staff to develop in certain direction (Pedler, 2011). As per the, Kolb model of self managed learning, following are the approaches that will help me to achieve the organisational goals:

Observation: This approach is very beneficial for me as it guides me to develop skills about how to treat the customers visiting the hotel. For example, I can join the training session which is provided by the organization about how to communicate with the customers so that the customer feel satisfied. The programme also helped me to know that how to make the best use of resources available in the organization. The organization tries to provide best observation skills to me so that I can explore my knowledge and skills more.

      Figure 1: Learning cycle in Kolb's model

Reading: Reading is the best approach for self managed learning (Graves, 2013).  By reading books, articles and journals I can get more knowledge about the various operations in the hotel. Reading has increased my level of confidence and also helped me to gain the required knowledge about various operations. This will improve my professional skills so as to achieve the personal goals and objectives.

1.2 Ways to encourage lifelong learning

Learning is very important as it helps in developing the knowledge, skill and ability to maintain the position in the organisation. Being an assistant manager at  hotel Hilton  I would like to prefer the following ways for life-long learning that will increase my potential and also help me to achieve personal and professional objective:

• Self-evaluation: On the way of lifelong learning, self evaluation becomes very important. I also learned to evaluate my skills, strengths and weaknesses that will help me to sustain in the organisation for longer period (Siemens, 2014). With self evaluation, I can understand my potential and performance at the workplace. It also helped me in correcting my mistakes. For example, after the feedback of the customers on the quality of service provided, I have tried to improve the services with the help of staff members.
• Internet: Internet can be used as an effective tool for lifelong learning and will also help in achieving the personal and professional goals. Just by accessing the internet I can learn many new things about hotel Hilton and also can acquire the knowledge about various operations in the hotel. For example, I can watch online videos to learn more about management theories, roles and responsibilities of the manager.  Internet will help me to gain the knowledge about how to strategise various plans and policies so as to encourage the staff members and also to increase their efficiency at workplace (Wise.et.al, 2010). Internet will help me to be more creative and will help me to increase the knowledge personally as well as professionally.

1.3 Benefits of self managed learning for me and for organisation

Benefits for me:

• Improved skills: As an assistant manager, self managed learning will help me to improve my communication skills such as verbal and non verbal communication, as well as interpersonal skills which include listening skills, negotiating skills etc. It will assist me in solving the problems quickly and also to take the decisions quickly. I can become active learner as well as active listener which will help me to increase my potential and efficiency at workplace (Bourner, 2011).
• Get the higher position: Self learning will help me to become more capable for higher position that is for the position of Manager in the hotel Hilton. Also I have improved my capability to strategise appropriate plan and policy so as to achieve the organisational goals which will help me to get promoted for higher position in the organisation.

Benefits for organisation

• Service Standard: If the staffs of hotel Hilton are following the approaches of self managed learning, then it will help in improving the quality of standards of the organisation. It will lead to increase in the efficiency of staff members (Bjork.et.al, 2013). Also due to this, the customers will feel satisfied and visit the same place again.
• Customer Satisfaction: Self managed learning will help the manager and the staff members to enhance the customer services. For example, proper accommodation facilities, taste of food being provided to them, etc. Thus, self learning will help the organisation as well as individual on both aspects personally and professionally.

Task 2

2.1 Evaluation of own skills and competencies against professional standard and organizational objectives

Currently I am looking for an opportunity to get to a higher position from my current position of assistant manager. For that purpose, it is very important to evaluate my skills, strengths and weaknesses and also my communication techniques to achieve the set goals. Self evaluation has helped me to learn the skills that are required for professional standard of manager at Hilton (Burke and Noumair, 2015). During the evaluation, I have identified that there is need to better my communication skills, decision making abilities, time management and a lot more to acquire the position of Manager at Hilton. Furthermore, it is also required to improve hospitality functions and pursue a good knowledge about global approaches.

SWOT analysis:

                                                                      Table 1: SWOT analysis

STRENGTH Optimum utilisation of resources Strategising strong plans and policies Strengthening good relationship with all the staff members Good leadership Motivation

WEAKNESS Lack of decision making Lack of communication skills Time management Less understanding about higher positions

 

OPPORTUNITIES Promotion to the higher position Increased confidence level Improved hospitality functions To increase the level of customer satisfaction

THREATS Rivalry Increasing Technology Different policies and procedures Difference in observation

2.2 Identification of development needs and activities to meet them

As an assistant manager at Hilton, I have to make improvements in the set of skills that identified using the self-evaluation and  SWOT analysis.  In order to improve my skills as per the standard of manager, I will join training sessions, various seminars and conferences based on how to improve the communication skills. Also I will refer to various online sources that will help me to improve my communication skills (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). As per the analysis, there is need of improvement in decision making and time management and also to learn more about the international standards of working in hospitality organization. For that purpose, I will take advice from my seniors in the organisation, as per their advice I will opt for those activities that will improve my lacking skills and also my level of efficiency. Furthermore, to develop my skills that are identified during analysis, I will observe the strategies and policies planned by the members at higher level of position in the hotel. Also I will observe that how they make the best use of resources available in the organisation and how do they deal in the critical situations (Esp, 2013). I will learn about how to solve the problems with great efficiency at the time of critical situation.

2.3 Development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs

In the professional life, it is required to make improvement in various qualities and skills so as to meet current and future requirements. It is important to identify opportunities and plans to meet them which will help in improving the efficiency and implementation of various strategies at Hilton (Ainscow.et.al, 2013). Following table will help to identify the opportunities and needs and process to meet them:

Table 2: Development opportunities and action

Opportunities	Current standard	Future Standard	Action for improvement
Time Management	2	4	Advance planning and Efficient timetable will help in proper time management.
Decision Making	1.5	4	By observing the experienced person and also by involving all the team members I will improve this quality.
Communication(Non-Verbal)	2	5	All online sources, various training sessions, seminar and conferences will help to improve the communication.
Leadership	2.5	4	By referring to various leadership styles and also by observing the people at higher post.
Planning	2	5	By referring to the past activities and by taking suggestions from the team members and seniors in the organisation.
Language	3	5	For this I will join training classes and will try to communicate with people who belong to different backgrounds.

2.4 Personal and professional development plan

To improve personal and professional standard, I will take the following development plan. This will help me to improve my skills which are identified during SWOT analysis (Brown, and Harvey, 2011). Following is the development plan for improvement:

Table 3: Development plan

SKILLS	ACTIVITY TO IMPROVE	TIME FRAME	EVIDENCE
Time management	Advance planning and acquiring the prior knowledge about the available resource.	2 months	All the customer’s requests are handled well without any delay. Customers felt satisfied.
Decision Making	By reviewing to the decisions taken in past and by observing the senior staff members.	1 month	Made decisions in the critical situations.
Leadership	By learning about the various leadership styles.	1 month	Providing the right direction to the staff members and taking action as per the guidelines
Communication	By attending training sessions and interacting with staff members	2 months	Make interaction with high profiled customer using different language.
Planning	Gained the knowledge through planning of hospitality functions	1 month	Planned the entire event at Hilton.
Team working	Involving in decision making and interacting with all the staff members	2 months	Participated in the meeting to achieve the organisational goals.

Task 3

3.1 Process and activities required to implement development plan

Here is the plan created by me, for development in personal and professional skills. For implementing the plan following are the activities to be used:

• Mentoring: This is an important process required in the implementation of plan so as to achieve personal and professional objectives. Mentoring is the process in which the proper guidance of superiors is taken for performing the tasks in a better way (McNiff, 2010). With this process, I will take support from the experts who will help me in the execution of the plan. As the experts will have more knowledge and experience, it will help me to take right decision and implement the plan. It will also help me to gain the knowledge about proper distribution of time, maximum utilization of resources and tools available. All these will be very beneficial for making an improvement. This process will prove beneficial as it help in bringing an effective improvement in the operations.
• Training: Training is also an important activity which would help in performing the tasks in more effective way. The training will assist in directing the direction in order to implement the plan successfully in the organization (Zepeda, 2012). Training would provide an appropriate guidance and manages the activities according to the available skills and learning. The training process would assist me in focussing more properly on communication, team work, planning and leading the development plans in the hotel Hilton. Training would enhance the capability for proper follow up of development plans and proper monitoring which will increases the effectiveness of plan in hotel Hilton. 

3.2 Document for development activities as planned

The development activities which is required for proper implementation of personal and professional development plan I will undertake the following document:

Table 4: Document table

Development activities	To document
Time management	Advance and enhanced planning Prior knowledge of available resources Timeline and maintenance of standard Knowledge about the various operations of hotel Hilton
Improvement in performances of professionals	Interacting with the staff or employees of hotel Hilton Proper monitoring of the staff Providing the right and required directions to the staff Use of proper and appropriate leadership styles
Improvement in interpersonal skills	Identifying the needs and requirements of an individual staff Motivation and leadership Training and development programs Involving the staff in decision making
Organizational exposure	Introduction of process of lifelong learning Identification of trends and market changes Review of policies and objectives of an organization Evaluating the key staff requirements in the organization Proper collection and responses to the feedback received

3.3 Critical evaluation of own learning against original objectives

After following the implemented personal and professional development plan in hotel Hilton, I have noticed improvements have been taken place in the organization in terms of communication, planning, skills and leadership. But I felt that more qualitative efforts are still required in the process of achieving the desired objectives of hotel Hilton. I have collected the suggestions and feedback from my seniors and mentors in order to analyze properly the effectiveness of personal and professional development plans and learning (Tompkins.et.al, 2010). This analyze helped a lot in identifying the key areas were the improvements are still needed for achieving the objectives effectively and efficiently. The key areas were allocation and utilization of available resources, improvements in language learning and the leadership style and form used in the organization needed the more improvements in order to achieve the desired level of performance in the hotel Hilton. The improvements in these key fields can be achieved by taking help of online sources and advices of experts. The online sources and expert advices would help in achieving efficiently and effectively the personal and professional objectives and to attain the position of manager of hotel Hilton. The online sources are a tool which would help in attaining the personal and professional objectives effectively. A regular access of internet would help in gaining knowledge about the recent trends and preferences of the customers and changes in the market place (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). This would provide information about the manager’s roles and responsibilities and management theories which would make me an effective manager of the hotel Hilton. The expert advices would suggest in improving the communication and motivation level in the workplace and how to increase the effective lifelong learning process in the organization. This would enhance the skills and abilities of the staff which leads to proper developments in personal and professional context.

3.4 Updated development plan

After having a critical evaluation of development plans it was noticed that improvements were taken place in some of the parts but still more efforts were required in a key fields such as allocation and utilization of resources and language learning process. After considering all these required improvements and efforts, I have lead down some of the changes in the current development plan in order to achieve the personal and professional objectives of hotel Hilton (Satzinger.et.al, 2011). The following is the updated development plan in terms of personal and professional of hotel Hilton:

Table 5: Updated plan for personal and professional development

Qualities	Lacking	Required actions for improvement	Time period (Month)
Time management	Timely delivering of products and services to the customers	Collection of needs and requirements and proper scheduling	2
Planning	Proper allocation and optimum utilization of resources	Proper follow up of direction. Use of global approach for hospitality purpose.	2
Communication	Less understanding of different languages	Establishment of training centres and encouraging interaction of staff with the people.	2
Leadership	Encouragement and proper motivation of staff members	Observing and taking advices of top management people of hotel Hilton.	1

The above updated plan would assist the hotel Hilton in order to meet the goals of personal and professional in more precise manner. These goals would help in overall development of an individual in the organization and helps in proper functioning of operations with achieving maximum level of customer satisfaction in hotel Hilton.

Task 4

4.1 Solution of work-based problem

It is observed according to the given scenario that in hotel Hilton the employees’ turnover rate is much higher. The organization is facing the issues related to the engagement of staff members in hotel Hilton. To solve the problems related to the employees’ engagement and employees’ turnover, management of hotel Hilton is required to adopt the various effective activities in the organization (Kolodner, 2014). These problems can be solved out by bringing and encouraging the innovative and creative thoughts of staff members, use of effective thinking in unfamiliar contexts, etc. The following are some of the activities which would help hotel Hilton in motivating and retaining their skilled and capable staff members within the organization:

• Brainstorming: The brainstorming is the process where the staff members are encouraged to participate with the management of hotel Hilton in granting suggestions and ideas. This process would help in encouraging the employees’ engagement, motivates the staff members and boost their morale. This is also beneficial for the organization in achieving the best suitable solutions to any problem.
• Delegation: Delegation of part of authority and responsibility to the experienced and knowledge staff members would motivate them and boost their morale (D’Zurilla and Nezu, 2010). The employees respecting to the delegated responsibility becomes more effectiveness in their performance and also increases the overall productivity.
• Rewards and incentives: In order to motivate and retain the highly skilled and capable employees in the organization the rewards and incentives tools can be applied. The staff member performing the best in hotel Hilton will be appreciated by providing the reward like promotion and incentives to him. Such an appreciation would help the organization in providing proper motivating and retaining and engaging the employees in the workplace. This also increases the productivity level and profitability ratio of hotel Hilton.

4.2 Communication styles that could be used by Hilton hotel

Effective communication is most important in hotel Hilton for carrying out the various operations efficiently. Various stakeholders whether employees, customers, board of directors, etc sends the important and crucial information to each other constantly (Shockley-Zalabak, 2011). The various styles of communication used in hotel Hilton are as follows:

• Email: Email is one of the effective communication medium which is a fast, efficient and also allows record of the interaction. It is a cost and time saving effective communication style. Through email the staff and manager and carry out their conversation effectively. Through email, they can send the document of any format easily whether it is PDF or simple word or excel file.
• Video conferencing: Video is a great way to communicate with the employees when a face-to-face communication becomes impossible due to distance (Griffin and McClish, 2011). Today, the video cameras and internet technology makes it inexpensive and easy to have an effective communication. The video communication would help the hotel Hilton to have a meeting or conference with its staff members easily through video without considering the distance. It is a best way to have virtual face –to-face interaction with the employees.
• Meetings: It is an oldest style of communication in which the information is spread and also collected from the staff members. The meetings in hotel Hilton are conducted to explain the tasks and responsibilities to the staff members for proper flow of operation in the organization. Meetings are conducted by the management and managers of hotel Hilton for discussing and receiving the feedbacks from the employees ensuring proper work flow (Littlejohn and Foss, 2010). In meeting, important matters and information are discussed.

                                    Figure 4: Various communication styles

4.3 Time management strategies

The time management is the process used in hotel Hilton to exercise a conscious control over the time spent on specific activities in order to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Time management in hotel Hilton would help in maintaining discipline and punctuality in the organization, better planning and better forecasting and timely delivery of services and less stress and anxiety in the workplace (Larson and Gray, 2011). The managers of hotel Hilton can used the following time management strategies in the organization:

Prioritization: Prioritization is the process in which the tasks are performed according to the to-do list. The list consists of such task which is urgent and important. The urgent and important tasks are given the most priority and they are performed firstly with more precise manner then the other task. The prioritization in hotel Hilton is done on the basis of customer needs and events. Such process will reduce the stress in the workplace and saves time and meet the deadlines (Nespor, 2014). The prioritization strategy can be used by the hotel Hilton more effectively by using priority matrix which is a software application used for arranging tasks by urgency and importance.

                                              Figure 5: Prioritization process

Scheduling: Scheduling is the process of arranging, controlling and optimizing the work and workloads. The scheduling strategy is used in hotel Hilton to allocate the resources, plan human resources, plan production processes and purchase materials. The order for the task is scheduled based on the working time available and estimating the time each task will take (Kerzner, 2013). The proper scheduling will assist the hotel Hilton in fulfilling the task in a given period of time without any delay. It also facilitates systemic, timely and speedy completion of tasks by achieving the efficiency and effectiveness in the operations.

Conclusion

From this study it is concluded that personal and professional development is a necessary process in order to gain the advantages over the other people and attain the desired position in the hotel Hilton. This report has explained the self-managed leaning as well as life-long learning which would help in personal and professional development. In this report, the analysis of own skills and competencies against the organizational and manager level standard has also been explained. At the end, report has evaluate the solution of work based problems on  Knowledge communications  styles used in hotel Hilton. The importance of time management and various time management strategies has also reviewed in this report.

References

Books and Journals

Ainscow, M., Beresford, J., Harris, A., Hopkins, D., Southworth, G. and West, M., 2013. Creating the conditions for school improvement: a handbook of staff development activities. Routledge.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bandarin, F., Hosagrahar, J. and Sailer Albernaz, F., 2011. Why development needs culture. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 1(1), pp.15-25.
Bjork, R.A., Dunlosky, J. and Kornell, N., 2013. Self-regulated learning: Beliefs, techniques, and illusions. Annual review of psychology, 64, pp.417-444.
Boud, D., 2013. Enhancing learning through self-assessment. Routledge.
Bourner, T., 2011. Developing self-managed action learning (SMAL). Action Learning: Research and Practice, 8(2), pp.117-127.
Brown, D.R. and Harvey, D., 2011. An experiential approach to organization development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Burke, W.W. and Noumair, D.A., 2015. Organization development: A process of learning and changing. FT Press.
Chu, S. and Majumdar, A., 2012. Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy future. nature, 488(7411), pp.294-303.