Unit 13 Personal and Professional Development Assignment SWOT Analysis

Introduction

Personal and professional development refers to evolution of own skills and capabilities and identification of strategy and activities for improvement to achieve the goals and objectives. The Unit 13 Personal and Professional Development Assignment SWOT Analysis will explain self-managed learning and approaches of lifelong learning to improve the own effectiveness according to organizational goals and objectives. In the next task report will conduct the SWOT analysis for identifying the skills that requires improvement and develop the personal and professional development plan. It will define activities to undertake the plan and critically analyze the effectiveness of and make changes in the plan to craft improvement in the areas of lacking. At the end, report will provide the solution for work based problem at  Hilton hotel  and explain the process of communicating the information at different level.     

Task 1

1.1 Evaluate approaches to self managed learning

Self directed learning is the process through which an individual enhances knowledge with the help of all the resources available to an individual or group. In the direction of self directed learning, one becomes independent and acquires knowledge without through self evaluation. By choosing any appropriate strategy one can easily becomes self directed learner.

 Following are the approaches that individual can select to become an independent self directed learner:

• Seminar: In the seminars, a group of people share their ideas, thoughts and experiences which can improve an individual’s knowledge to an extent. Being a manager, I would like to improve my communication skills, leadership qualities, decision making ability with the help of seminars (Loucks-Horsley.et.al. 2009).  By understanding other’s experience and knowledge, I can improve my managing skills a well. Improvement in my skills will make me more confident and will allow me to grow and prosper in my management skills.

• Reading: An individual can learn all theoretical knowledge by reading books, articles and journals. As a manager, with the help of various theories and ideas I can improve my leadership qualities, skills like planning, controlling, decision making etc. For example, there are many types of leadership style I can choose any style that suits best to me or any leadership style to which I can adapt very easily. This is going to help me a lot professionally.
• Observation: The most important quality required for being a self directed learner, is observation. Being a manager, observing carefully and understanding all the things happening around me will improve my power to focus and will also improve my leadership qualities, decision making skill, communication skills, and will  also boost my confidence (McLoughlin and  Lee, 2010). Observing situations like how people react in difficult time, how do they analyze situations and take decisions, what leadership qualities they pursue etc. All these observations will help me in not only being self directed learner but also a good manager as well.

1.2 Ways to encourage life- long learning

As an assistant manager, I will involve the following approaches to encourage learning in personal and professional context:

• Self evaluation: Being an assistant manager, it is important to evaluate my decision making ability. Any plan or policy that is not framed according to the objectives of organisational goals should be evaluated and corrective measures should be taken at the right time. All corrective measures can be executed and the final outcome can be achieved according to the organizational goals (McNeil.et.al. 2015). Self evaluation will help me to identify my decision making ability and also it will help to boost my confidence. Whenever the corrective measures will be implemented, performances can be improved and also I can identify the gap between current and desired standard for both my leadership qualities and management qualities as well.
• Planning: After self evaluation, planning is important. How the measures will be implemented, is decided through planning. Planning is the very first step to achieve desired goals. For example:  In the hotel, if I want to explore my business to manage all resources well, there is a need to frame right policy and plan to achieve the desired outcome (Murdoch?Eaton and Whittle, 2012). Also the coordination between staff and management is important for desired outcome. Proper planning and controlling helps in improving better performances and the final outcome can be achieved easily.
• Internet: Technology is improving day-by-day, Internet is the great source of knowledge. With the help of an internet, I can read articles related to leadership theories and style, how to motivate employees so that they can perform their task very efficiently and effectively. Also I can see videos on how to improve my communication skill or how to increase my confidence level or how should I encourage team spirit (Nicholls, 2014). This strategy will help me the most to encourage learning in personal and also in professional life.

1.3 Benefits of Self learning for an organisation and Individual

With self learning, both organisation and individual will be benefitted in many ways:

Benefits for employees:

• Promotion: Being an assistant manager, self learning will help me to improve my communication skills, leadership qualities, etc which will help me to get new job title. As a manager I can frame new policies and plan, can motivate employees to perform their level best. Also it will boost my confidence level. I will make the optimum utilization of resource available with me also I will work hard to provide high level of satisfaction to customer.
• Improvement in skills: As a manager, I will become more responsible. Various leadership qualities that I pursue can be improved. At personal and professional level also my communication skills can be improved (Pedler, 2011). The most important skill that every manager must carry is time management, managing time properly and doing less wastage of time will allow me to achieve desired objective. Also new ideas and innovations will allow me to prosper in my management skills.

Benefits for organisation

• Achievement of goals: Once the goals are set it becomes easy is to achieve desired goals. With the coordination among the staff members and management, quality service can be provided to customers that will help to achieve desired goals efficiently and effectively.
• Customer satisfaction: If the demand of the customer is fulfilled, customer becomes satisfied which is beneficial for the hotel. As a manager, I will provide quality service to the customer and I will work hard to achieve  customer satisfaction  to great extent.

Task 2  

2.1 Evaluation of own skills and competencies against the professional standards and objectives           

As a manager in Hilton hotel, my responsibility is to manage the human resources to meet the desired functionality and operations in hotel. It is necessary for me to develop the understanding about the various functioning areas of the organization so that I can use my skills to achieve organizational as well as personal objectives. To meet my job profile, I need to improve my communicational skills, anticipations and analysis approaches to deal with employees and customers. However, current skills in motivation, planning and implementation are good but the regular changes in organization are leading me to enhance the skills in order to work with new approaches and situations (Bell, 2010). 

In order to meet professional standards associated with manager profile, I need to make changes in personality and communication so that I can effectively motivate the employees and present the business before the customers. It is required for me to analyse the employee’s performance and to maintain the relationship with them. I need to learn how to enhance relationship with employees in professional manner so that organizational goals can be achieved more efficiently with the satisfaction at employees. However the current skills are effective to manage the workload and distribution but still need some improvement to deliver the work on time (Ahmed.et.al.2011). Also, attention will be given towards the personal objectives like good personality and professional values among employees.

2.2 Identification of needs activities to improve them

To sustain the position of manager, it is necessary to identify the approach towards the own development and growth so that they can also be used for the professional profile in workplace. Various techniques like self-assessment and SWOT can be used to enhance my skills. I have identified that in order to enhance the communication skills, I need to make command over the language and presentation of ideas. I will make use of online video and audio to craft my skills in presentation. For a manager it is necessary to be excellent in communication and in personality to sustain the position in workplace and to be effective in role and responsibility (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). The practices towards the professional standards will help me to establish nice relations with employees.

My practices will also be concentrated on the time and planning in projects. Scheduling, prioritization and distribution of work will be made after the detailed analysis so that projects can be completed within the time and with quality. I will log my previous activities so that future faults can be stopped and same experience can be used to enhance the progress of newer task (Simons, 2013). Books and journal will be preferred by me to know more about the management practices.

Table 1: SWOT analysis

STRENGTH	WEAKNESS
Good in written languages Responsible at job profile Good to make use of available resources Quality assessment is excellent Planning skills and attributes are good	Lack of communication practices Lack of Proficiency Lack of understanding of standards Single  lingual
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Larger scopes of leadership skills Development of professional behaviour Increase in the confidence levels	Changes in traditional structure of organization Risk with new plans in execution Trust on online sources

2.3 Development opportunities to meet future needs

A manager always has an opportunity to enhance the current skills set along with the development of new qualities in personality. It is essential for a manager to observe the opportunities inside and outside the organization so that timely actions can be taken to meet the personal objectives (Egan, 2013). As a manager in Hotel Hilton, I have analysed the following future needs and the approaches to meet them:

Table 2: Development opportunities and action for future (GAP Analysis)

Development opportunities	Current rating	Desired rating	Action for improvement to meet future needs
Leadership	2.5	4	To improve the leadership, I will learn from the theories and activities of great leaders. I will learn how to lead in opposite conditions of business. (McNeil. et.al. 2015).
Time management	2.5	4	I will improve my schedule and planning strategies to enhance the productivity in work.
Planning	3.5	5	I will study the previous activities of the management so that same experience can be used to make the planning stronger for new task (Lussier, 2011).
Communication	3	4.5	I will encourage myself to participate in various events in workplace so that communication skills can be improved. It will be helpful to motivate the employees.

2.4 Personal and professional development plan

For the effective management and motivation of employees as a manager in hotel Hilton, I will follow the following personal and development plan.

Table 3: Personal and professional development plan

SKILLS	Time management	Communication	Leadership	Planning	working	Professional knowledge		Utilization of resources
IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED	Manage the time to deliver the task within time	To meet the communication skill which is used for profession	Employees satisfaction will be considered	Analysis on need of human power to accomplish the task within time.	Development of collaboration with employee.	Formal language and personality in workplace	Proper distribution of work to proper skill set
IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITY	Time based allocation of task to manage the time.	Live participation and learning from online video and audio sources along with books & journals	Individual’s capabilities will be observed to carry out the job	Study will be made on prior actions and faults to make better strategies	Team work will be created to motivate everyone in group	Classes will be joined and participation in practice.	Proper analysis of work load and capabilities of team (McNiff, 2010)
TIME FRAME	3 Months	2 month	1.5 month	2 months	1.5 Months	2 months	1 Months
EVIDENCE	Organizing events and norms to manage the time in a competitive manner.	Being enrolled in communication with employees for their queries and interest.	Motivating employees to meet the organizational goals.	Requirements of the task in Hilton is being analysed so that better plan can be made.	Conducting meeting to distribute the workload in acceptable form	Using presentations to enhance the professional knowledge.	Making notes on individual’s capability to ensure the proper use of skills in organization (Moon, 2013).

Task 3

3.1 Activities and procedure for executing the plan of development

To plan the personal and professional growth, I will follow certain activities and procedures to ensure the development. This will be helpful for me to present myself in better and effective manner before the employees and customers. I would like to prefer the following procedures and activities to win my bad parts in personalities:

• Training and Job experience: I will make use of training and development programs to craft my skills to manage the activities of employees and learn how to direct them towards the fulfilment of organizational objective. Training will help me to uncover the managerial functions and responsibility in Hilton workplace. I will prove my best in training programs. Same knowledge will be applied in workplace and learn from the job experience (Mizell, 2010).
• Mentoring: To mentor others, it is necessary for me to understand the optimized approaches and practices so that I can direct the employees to make the progress efficient. I will develop my professional knowledge and skills so that I can effectively mentor the employees for the queries, troubles and solutions in completion of task. I will make use of seniors and their experience to overcome the cost and time required by the task. Mentoring will be helpful to deliver the more productivity and quality within the time.
• Meditation: It is possible that I face critical time to make decisions or to go through the stressful situations of business. In such cases, to manage my concentration, I will spend some time on meditation. I will use silence places to think around the critical problems. Meditation will be helpful to conqueror the diverse situations in development of plans (Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson, 2014). Meditation will help me to achieve multitasking nature and to focus on development rather than to worry about the barriers.

3.2 Document for planned activities

The following document is presented to parallelize the personal and professional development plans with the organizational goals:

Table 5: Document for planned activities

Development activities	To document
Enhancement in performance	Learning and understanding about the organizational operations of Hilton Time graph to meet the standards define by organization Development of teamwork Analysis on use of resources Govern and control the employee activities in workplace (Rotherham and Willingham, 2010)
Organizational revelation	Recognition of key employees Feedback from employees about the structure and operations Analysis on changes in industry as according to customers.
Interpersonal talent	Development towards the multilingual nature  Participation in employees activities   Analysis on individual’s capability and role in organization (Fukuda-Parr and Lopes, 2013) Strong motivation and decision making

3.3 Critical evaluation of learning according to developed plan

To make improvements in my personal and professional skills, I analysed the certain activities and practices so that areas of the improvements can be identified. In order to acquire enhancement in skills, I have been planned several procedures like training and development, mentoring and meditation. It is necessary for me to evaluate the outcome of all the efforts towards the skills. I have used the feedback from employees and analysed the effect of talents on activities. Feedback stated that my skills of leadership and planning are improvement dramatically in comparison of others. Addition to it, I have received the good feedback in communication skill and my presentation. The productivity from the employees is increased as the result of proper utilization of resources, time division and planning strategies. Also the employees are satisfied with working strategies and showing interest in the communication with me (Moon, 2013).

Besides to all that, skills of professional knowledge and working is enhanced but still need some time to get maturity. I am facing a bit problem to treat employees according to the workload. I think that historical aspect of management will be helpful for me to establish link with employees. I am using online books and journals to know the practices in common objectives so that time on  decision making  and implementation can be saved (Kolb, 2014). However, I have reached the proficient level of qualities for those a manger should seek to meet.

3.4 Revision in the personal and professional development plan

As I have mentioned, I am facing a bit trouble to deal with employees in certain cases. Also my decision making power is not so quick and responsive for problems. Thus, I have changed my activity and procedures to meet the remaining needs:

Table 6: Updated development plan

Qualities	Lacking	Action for improvement	Required Time period (Month)
Decision making power	Not so responsive and quick	Making approaches to learn previous activities and pre analysis of issues (Zepeda, 2012).	2
Employee relations	formality	Reduce the flexible nature and apply formal behaviour to maintain relations	1
Professional Knowledge	Lack in perfection to subjects	Considering practical experience rather than moving theoretically	2
Team working	Exact identification on individual’s interest and skills	Using form fills from employees’ side to know their skill sets and check at own side (Hopkins and Putnam, 2013 ).	2

Task 4

4.1 Solutions to work-based problems

Work-based problems are those problems which cause hindrance in effective working in the workplace. These problems need an effective solution because this will otherwise result in low quality work. Effective problem solving takes some time and also required a proper attention till it is not solved completely (Schein, 2010). The effective solution to work-based problem followed a following process:

• Identifying the problem
• Understanding interest of everyone
• Listing of solutions to the problem
• Evaluating the problem solution
• Selecting appropriate solution among all
• Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the suggested solution

In Hotel Hilton, communication is noticed as one of the major work based problem. Due to lack of proper communication the quality of services provided by the Hilton to its customers are affected. The managers and other employees of Hilton hotel are facing problems in exchanging the important information and data which are essential to daily operations of the hotel. The solution to improve the communication processes in the Hilton required use of emails, messaging apps or sending messages via LinkedIn for quick exchange of information among the employees of Hotel Hilton (Stüber, 2011). Issues related to workplace communication can be solved by understanding and creating effective policies in the hotel which will addresses the problems and helps in creating an efficient communication network in the Hilton.

4.2 Communication in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various level

The communication can be done in variety of styles. Like for applying for a suitable job, one can send his application through email. The email can be composed like the following:

To: abc@gmail.com Subject: Job application email Dear sir/madam,             Email Message Firstly email should cover the reference of the job applying for and where you found the     job posting. Secondly, details about what we have to offer to employer and why employer should hire you. I am here by attaching a copy of my resume with this e-mail. I will eagerly wait for the interview call from you. Thank you Yours’ Sincerely Name Signature

The format of the CV attached with the e-mail for the job application is the following:

Name: xyz Address: Flat 9 Bounds Green Court London, N112EX Mob: 99999999 E-Mail: xyz@gmail.com Nationality: Romanian D.O.B: 09.07.1974  PROFILE- Conscientious, hard working and trustworthy individual who is eager to work within the people. A good overall knowledge of looking for a position with the prospect to continue to learn, develop and progress. I self motivated and have good communication skills. I have proven experience succeeding in a variety of professional environments and thrive on challenges. I enjoy working as part of a team and always willing to extend knowledge on all subjects. WORK HISTORY- Feb 2002 to Aug 2003 – Waitress Avanti- Village Restaurant, London Mar 2005 to Nov 2008 – Waitress Joe’s Cafe, London Apr 2006 to Aug 2008 – Waitress La Pasta Restaurant, London (part time in the evening) Sep 2008 to Aug 2010 – Waitress San Daniele Del Friuli Restaurant, London (part-time in the evening) Oct 2009 - Present - Dressmaker Steliana Tailoring, London   EDUCATION- Professional School of Tailoring, Bacau, Romania KEY SKILLS- -Experience in Restaurants through employment, -Experience of Design and Tailoring through study, -Accurate, organized and creative, -Strong presentation skills, -Meticulous with an eye for detail. SOFTWARE0SYSTEM SKIL- -Operating Windows, -Internet Knowledge, -Creating Software Abilities LANGUAGE SKILLS- Romanian – native language English: Reading – Excellent Writing – Good Communicating- Good REFERENCES- References available on request. INTERESTS- Reading, theatre, travelling, art exhibitions and music.

On becoming successful in my job application, following is the job resignation letter to my present employer:

To The Manager Steliana Tailoring, London   Date: 20.09.2016   Dear Manager, I am writing to inform you that I am resigning my position as Dressmaker in Steliana Tailoring effective October 2009. I am resigning my position because of some reasons. Thank you for the opportunity to work at Steliana Tailoring, London.   Sincerely, xyz

4.3 Evaluation and use of effective time management strategies

Time management is the ability to use one’s time effectively especially at the work. Time management helps in making effective use of time as time is always limited. Time can be used effectively by following steps:

• Effective planning: It includes preparing To Do List of important activities to be done. High priority work should come first in the list.
• Setting Goals and Objectives: Setting targets will helps in not losing the way. The goals and objectives must be realistic and achievable (Thrun and Pratt, 2012).
• Setting deadlines: Deadlines should be set and try harder to complete the task ahead of the deadlines. Deadlines would help to complete the tasks on time.

In hotel Hilton, time management is needed so that proper delivery of services to their customers can be achieved. This would help further in achieving customer satisfaction and good brand name in the market. The time management skills that can be used in Hilton are as follows:

• Prioritization: Prioritization is an effective key to successful time management. The task to be performed in Hilton should be prioritized in accordance to their importance and urgency.  The services which are most important should be delivered first and later the other one.
• Scheduling: Scheduling helps in planning the activities so that the objectives and priorities can be achieved in time. Scheduling will help Hilton in proper arrangement of the time which insures timely delivery of services to its customers (Van Weele, 2009). Scheduling is done with the purpose to complete the task in correct time. Scheduling is done by keeping the priorities in mind.

Conclusion

With the help of the above report it could be concluded that personal and professional development has significant impact on the effectives and growth of individual. Report has provided the information about the approaches of self managed learning through internet and attending the conferences and seminaries for the improvement in managerial skills of Travelodge manager. In the next part report has conducted SWOT analysis to identify the areas of lacking and opportunities and developed the personal and professional development plan. However, report has discussed the activities for executing the plan and significantly analyse the effectiveness of plan.

References

Books and Journals
Ahmed, K., Miskovic, D., Darzi, A., Athanasiou, T. and Hanna, G.B., 2011. Observational tools for assessment of procedural skills: a systematic review. The American Journal of Surgery, 202(4), pp.469-480.
Bell, S., 2010. Project-based learning for the 21st century: Skills for the future. The Clearing House, 83(2), pp.39-43.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Robinson, R.E., 2014. Culture, time, and the development of talent. In The Systems Model of Creativity (pp. 27-46). Springer Netherlands.
Egan, G., 2013. The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping. Cengage Learning.
Fukuda-Parr, S. and Lopes, C. eds., 2013. Capacity for development: new solutions to old problems. Routledge.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.  Quality management  for organizational excellence.
Hopkins, D. and Putnam, R., 2013. Personal Growth Thru Adventure. Routledge.
Kolb, D.A., 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press.
Loucks-Horsley, S., Stiles, K. E., Mundry, S., Love, N. and Hewson, P. W. 2009. Designing professional development. Corwin Press
Lussier, R., 2011. Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Cengage Learning.
McLoughlin, C. and  Lee, M. J. 2010. Personalised and self regulated learning in the Web 2.0 era: International exemplars of innovative pedagogy using social software. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 26(1).
McNeil, A. J., Frey, R. and Embrechts, P. 2015. Quantitative Risk Management: Concepts, Techniques and Tools: Concepts, Techniques and Tools. Princeton university press.