Career Aspirations and Skills Development - Assignment Example

Personal Development Plan Section Career Aspirations My career aspiration is to move from deputy manager position to a role of Restaurant General Manager by the end of 2015. My role as a Restaurant General Manager will entail overseeing the day to day running of the establishment as it covers essential aspects of the operations. Roles performed by the general manger includes currying out interviews, hiring and firing employees in addition to being responsible for the training and scheduling of staff. Part of the general manager’s staff supervisory role is to solve conflicts arising between employees during their working hours. Apart from matters concerning the staff, additional roles include ensuring customer service is its best to ensure repeat business and is achieved through coordination of activities between the kitchen and dining area to ensure everyone performs their roles to the satisfaction of the customer (Lee, 2006). The general manager is also in charge of ordering inventories such as food, equipment and supplies with the assistance of different heads of sections such as the executive chef who handle food and supply orders and head bartender who may undertake duties such as ordering of liquor, beer and wine for a restaurant bar. However, it is the Restaurant General Manager who will do the costing of the food, supplies and equipment for the purpose of maintaining records for purchases and sales. Further, the general manager is also in charge of health and safety for both the patrons and staff. This is achieved through maintenance of high standards of cleanliness in the kitchen and dining area while also being informed of the latest regulatory requirements for the industry especially in such areas as labour laws and responsibilities to the customers. For me to be competent in the role of Restaurant General Manager, there are a number of skills that will be required in performing the responsibilities that comes with these role. Among such skills are leadership, interpersonal, creative, technical, administrative, and interpersonal skills with having them being essential for performance of the role of Restaurant General Manager and will facilitate effective application of in the performance of the several responsibilities such as promotion of the safety and security of guests, effective supervision of personnel in food production and serving area. The depth in skills and competencies required for the role of Restaurant General Manager is due to the wide area of operation as the manager is required to have extensive knowledge in staff management and development, accounting and finances, administrative procedures, food and beverage management and in planning and forecasting (Kay and Russette, 2000). To achieve my career aspirations, I have identified areas of strength that will improve my professional practice. Strength that I have developed over the course of my studies and professional growth is adopting self-motivation practices and activism in taking self-initiative for self-development. Self-motivation has been evident throughout my work as I always strive to perform my responsibilities to the highest levels of my ability. As a result, my attitude towards my works has always been positive which has resulted in customer appreciation whenever I have interacted with them. Additionally, most of my responsibilities have always been accomplished on time therefore undertaking high volumes of work than others within my department as I am able to complete one task and get more time to shift and complete other responsibilities. The consequence of being self-motivated and demonstrating activism in performance of my roles is that I moved from serving tables to managing the restaurant within a short period of time which was after being noticed by my supervisor as someone who does not close supervision to accomplish assigned tasks. Additionally, I have in many cases taken personal initiatives to introduce concepts that I deem as important in improving the levels of customer satisfaction. For instance, I undertook extra responsibilities like writing business updates on a wall in the staff room, participated in conference calls to increase my awareness of the business, created a team member of the month project to increase the potential of the staff and business productivity. However, being highly motivated and demonstrating activism in performing my responsibilities has led to a number of possible weaknesses that I will need to improve in future. I have I identified lack of delegation and work-life balance as part of my professional development where there is need for improvement. Lack of delegation for me was as a result of being proactive in performing different responsibilities. An instance where was unable to work with the rest of the team is when I temporarily held the office of the Restaurant General Manager during his absence. When performing the managers responsibilities, if found out that I was performing some tasks even when I could have delegated them to others such as the chefs. A similar weakness was evident in my class work especially when assigned a role as the leader of a group presentation in university. As a leader a class in International Relations I delegated topics of discussion to members but was unable to make a follow up on fellow students till last day. Consequently, I ended up doing most of work by myself as I was unable to get all the members to meet for the final compilation of the assignment. Section 2: Reflection on My Skills Development During my time as a deputy restaurant manager, I have gain significant experience that would facilitate easy transition into future role as a general restaurant manager. My work as the deputy manager involves meeting regularly with the restaurant general manager. During the first days of performing these roles, I was unable to effectively manage time as I had to run a number of tasks that the manager had delegated to me. I was for instance supposed to coordinate the responsibilities of staff in the kitchen and those in the dining area to ensure smooth flow of information and orders. This is an important area in ensuring customer satisfaction since customers do not expect to sit for a long time before being approached for their orders to be taken. However, I found it difficult to at first to ensure all this is taken care of within the shortest time possible especially during peak hours when most of the staff are already committed with other tasks. Consequently, my first area of experience during has been in time management. Over the course of my service to Pizza Hut UK I have learnt the importance of observing time in all the tasks I perform as quality service delivery to clients will depend on serving them within a short period of them placing their orders. To improve time management so that services can flow smoothly even during peak hours, I had to seek help and support by regularly consulting with the manager on the best practices that would ensure I improve on the delivery to customers. I also went for training on time management as part of my quest to be a master of my own development. Consequently, the skills I have gained will be instrumental in both current and future roles as I can now properly manage the staff under my supervision through allocation of additional duties during off-peak hours so that I create additional human resource for customer service when there are more customers in the restaurant. During the absence of the restaurant general manager, I have been assigned his responsibilities to ensure the services offered in the restaurant remain to be of high quality. The need to maintain high quality service provision to patrons ensured I did my best when such chances were presented to me. Service delivery improved during such periods since I am a proactive person which means I stayed within the premises for almost 24 hours of the week to ensure everyone performs allocated responsibilities as expected. Although this seemed productive in the short run, I have discovered there is need to work with others in different areas to ensure a give them space to include their input. Being involved in every aspect and at all levels leads to exhaustion which is also counterproductive. Such experiences have been the basis for my improved skills especially in areas concerned with delegation of duties and practicing of leadership skills. I have learned from experience during the absence of the restaurant general manager that I need to practice my leadership through delegation of duties to ensure I perform supervisory roles to the maximum of my capabilities. Leadership skills acquired during this time is an important component of successful restaurant general manager as I will be able performs all the duties through delegation of responsibilities to other members of the staff while I take care of the core functions such as ordering inventories and maintaining the finances and accounts of the restaurant. I have also been put in charge of the hiring and interview process and training for the organization an area which I have undertaken with great enthusiasm. Introduction of new employees into the organization begins during the interview process and therefore this presents the best opportunity for the candidate to get an overview of what the organization expects from them. Performing these interviews and taking part in the hiring process has improved my knowledge on interviewing skills which is important in getting the right employee for the available positions. I have also had to undertake training in this area based on the need to improve my interviewing skills necessary in to understand the attitude of prospective employees which might sometimes be masked by the prepared answers they present during the interview process. I have also had to understand various laws impacting on interviewing to ensure all the candidates are handled based on the legal requirements and that the questions asked do not infringe upon their rights (Miller and Cross, 2012). Consequently I believe that these skills will be important in my future role as a restaurant general manager. I will use my interviewing skills to ensure I hire staff and team members who are talented and possess desired skills for the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. Section 3: Career Management Action Plan I have identified a number of objects that will be essential in my career development as I seek to improve my skills in the industry. Firstly I will seek to increase my knowledge in hospitality industry. Although I have improved in a number of areas by acquiring some important skills over the past twelve months, I still need to have a deeper understanding of what the hospitality industry requires for one to be a successful restaurant general manager. Since I am professionally grounded in business management, I need to gain a deeper understanding in hospitality industry for me to combine the two areas of knowledge in performing my responsibility. To begin with I will take the next six months to gain knowledge in food and beverage as that covers essential aspects of the industry. Gaining such knowledge will be necessary in proper handling of issues related to operation of restaurants, bar and banqueting facilities and catering to patrons. Improving this aspect of my career will also have a positive impact on how I respond to the needs of the employee while also ensuring the organization maintains its profitability through successful management of the restaurant. Another important objective for the next twelve months is to increase the level of my commercial awareness as this will play an important role in developing ensuring I run a successful organization. Increasing my commercial awareness is an important step towards developing a profitable restaurant where the pricing food and beverages will correspond to the prices in the industry. This awareness will be of significance to me especially when purchasing food, beverage and equipment, setting the budgets and informing the pricing policies adopted by the restaurant (Lee, 2006). Improving on these areas is necessary as it helps understand the relationships, processes, costs and risks operating in the commercial activities undertaken. Further, it will improve my skills in making assessments and arriving at conclusions on whether the organizational operations will result in achievement of value for money invested. Consequently, seeking more knowledge to increase my commercial awareness ensure I possess an essential tool for decision making. The impact will be an improvement in performance as the restaurant adapt to the business environment by competing with other businesses in the industry, effective management of risks, achieve better prices from suppliers (Rodgers, 2007). After achieving the above objectives, it is important that I begin conducting a business plan as I prepare myself to run the restaurant on my own. After successfully performing my responsibilities as a deputy manager with occasional role of the restaurant general manager in an acting capacity, I have continued to develop my career towards attaining full capabilities to handle the requirements needed for successful running of a restaurant. These achievements imply that a can start thinking about taking on more roles to fulfil my potential. Constructing a business plan will be an effective way of assessing how far my ideas can be transformed into a reality. Therefore preparing a business plan will serve me in a number of ways which includes gaining knowledge about the cost of operating a restaurant for the purpose of preparing me for the new challenges that will come with running the establishment. Having a business plan is an important step for me to put the ideas I have developed over the years into a practical plan that will inform future course of action. This will also present me with an understanding of the financial implications involved in establishing a new restaurant while also creating a plan to present to possible investors who will provide supplementary investments for the plan (Butler, 2007). References Butler, D. (2007) Business planning: a guide to business start-up. London: Routledge. Kay, C. & Russette, J. (2000). Hospitality-management competencies. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administrative Quarterly, 41(2), 52-63. Lee, R. (2006) The everything guide to starting and running a restaurant. Massachusetts: Adams Media. Miller, R., & Cross, F. (2012) The Legal Environment Today: Business in its Ethical, Regulatory, E-Commerce, and Global Setting. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Rodgers, P. (2007) Commercial Awareness and Business Decision Making Skill. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More