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Ms. Lenny regards work as something important. When she works she tends to exert extra effort to achieve her goals and bring out the best in her. She is the type of worker who prefers to work at one particular task at a time and see it through to completion. However, she has learned to be flexible in her line of work and adaptable to the needs of the situation which are sometimes unpredictable.
Ms. Lenny enjoys the role and responsibilities of being a leader. She uses her social skills in managing her subordinates, and the people who works with her. In her new role as Training Manager, she enjoys to teach and share her knowledge to others. Despite her limited knowledge in training, she tries to come up with new ideas such as short courses on table manners, telephone manners, hospitality management and others related to social graces and ethics.
When faced with problems, Ms. Lenny admits that she is not confident to handle major decisions, rather, she prefers to seek approval from the GM. As she has no relevant work experience in training, she prefers to be cautious in her actions. Unlike in the banquet department, Lenny’s customers at present are the hotel employees and not the hotel guests. She finds that some of the employees regard training as a burden and usually encounters negative response, an example was the recent English training course were only few came to attend the first class. In such cases, she uses her strong and persistent nature and takes immediate action by seeking help from authority.
Ms. Lenny is the practical type of worker who wants quick action. She is a flexible worker but sometimes place less emphasis on planning ahead She is likely to take things as they come and deal with issues as they arise. Nevertheless, she seems to have an abundance of initiative and works hard to see that her mission is accomplished.
A. PERSONALITY
Her social nature is definitely one of her major strengths. She has the ability to interact and can easily establish rapport with people in general. She applies her people skills in most situations to achieve her objectives. She seems to be a relaxed, happy person and flavors her conversations with sense of humor. In general, she comes across as a likeable person. However, she seems to set high standards and expects others to meet her expectations, although her standards may not be realistic. She has a persistent nature and will force her opinions especially if she thinks she is right. She admits that she can be sometimes a bit offensive and direct She can also appear tough when it comes to payments and prefers to do things right following hotel’s systems and procedures.
Although Ms.Lenny may appear open and direct, beneath this impression, she likes to please people. She will restrain her feelings and avoid confrontations in order to maintain a harmonious working relationship. Physically, she admits that she cannot endure tasks that are stressful. She is not physically fit for jobs that are demanding or mobile. She feels training is appropriate for her condition at present but needs help in the technical side and outside expertise. Her openness to change has helped her coped with the big change in her career, being in banquet sales for a lengthy 26 years and then to training department.
B. STRENGTHS AND AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
STRENGTHS
• Sociable nature, easy to establish rapport with people, approachable
• Able to take the lead and initiate action
• Flexible and adaptable to change
• Places strong emphasis on punctuality
• Practical and “quick on feet”
AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
• May have to modify her leadership skill to be able to command authority. Her outgoing personality makes her appear to be “too nice” and not serious.
• Needs technical assistance to make her more effective in her current role
• Her expectations are sometimes too high and may become a bit personal to other’s shortcomings and limitations
• Can be offensive at times because of her being too open and direct
F. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION
Ms. Lenny’s lengthy experience in this hotel started way back in 1975 as Sales Executive. Her educational background from the Hotel Academy School Munich, Germany and various practical training overseas strongly supported her hotel career which she then applied in the Food and Beverage Department of Sun Jaya Hotel. From that time till now, Ms. Lenny has been exposed to all sections of the department thereby accumulating and dedicating 27 years of her working life to this hotel. Currently, she is the Training Manager and reports directly to the Resident Manager and to the General Manager as well.
Ms. Lenny comes across as a vibrant personality who is full of enthusiasm and a highly-spirited worker. Despite her limitations, she campaigns and seeks the support of her co-workers and senior management to give training a high priority. She uses her strong interpersonal skills to convince people of the importance of training and works hard to achieve her objectives. For some of her achievements, she had initiated short courses and continuously looks for resource speakers for training to the extent of using her own personal connections. Ms. Lenny admits that at this stage, she has a high need to achieve her goal not just for the money but to gain personal satisfaction and accomplishment.
Ms. Lenny’s major weakness at the moment is her lack of technical competence in the training area. However, her solid years of experience in the hotel business is giving her a big help in coordinating training requirements for the employees. Her physical condition is another area to watch out because Ms. Lenny feels that she is not young anymore and cannot be as energetic and mobile as before. She is unlikely to handle taxing and demanding tasks, and because of this, she seems to take things in stride.
Based on the above findings, we find Ms. Lenny has a positive work outlook and personality, the appropriate work profile backed by her educational background making her one of the hotel’s valuable employees. We recommend to maintain her position and give her the support she needs to make her more effective in the role.