Leadership Development Plan

Section One: Vision and Goals

About Me 

Student Name                              Desiree Meyette
Section and Semester                  HTM301-02 Spring 22
Degree Emphasis                        Meetings & Events
Current Job                                   Project Coordinator
Expected Graduation                    May 2024
My PRINT                                      8 Major / 2 Minor

The Ideal Hospitality Leader

Provide a narrative about your vision of the ideal leader in the hospitality and tourism context and the leader you envision yourself becoming.

I believe that the ideal leader is one who is willing to perform any task necessary to ensure the team/company succeeds. They will not ask their team to do anything that they, themselves, would not do. They give praise in public, and constructive criticism in private. They delegate work to the best person for the job and have faith in their team to do their job correctly. They will work to ensure all team members are properly trained for their role and are willing to answer questions and guide team members, if they need further assistance. They address team members with understanding, compassion and respect. They will work with team member who may be experiencing issues, both on the job and in their personal lives, within reason. They will empower their team to provide an excellent experience for the guests/attendees. They will develop plans with achievable goals to help move the company forward. They have a solid grasp of the company’s numbers to best determine the necessary actions to continue the company’s growth.

Career Goals

Based on what you know about your values, passions, and talents, what would be your dream career in the long term?

Life changes so often and my goals have had to change along with them. I know that I’d like to continue working my way up through operations of a sports team. At least, that’s what I believe for the foreseeable future, but I would also love to work on music festivals. So, I’m torn as to the exact industry, but I do hope to be at the Producer level within the next 10 years.

What would be an ideal position/career/life choice for you 5 years after graduating?

Ideally, I think that I’d like to land a full-time senior position in the operations division of a professional or college stadium.

List a short-term career goal – achieved by your graduation date.

I’d like to secure a full-time position in the operations division of a professional or college stadium.

Other Goals

Identify 3 goals for your college journey.

1. I will make time to volunteer at no fewer than 2 sporting events around San Diego over the 2022-2023 school year.

2. I will review 1-2 job listing sites, each semester, to familiarize myself with the various event manager/producer job titles and duties.

3. I will try to secure 2 day-of/on-site event manager contracts per year until graduation.

Section Two: Reflections

Simulations

Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses during the simulation. Identify the changes you would make if you were to take part in a second simulation. What areas do you think you could most improve upon?

If I were to redo the Conquest Air simulation, I’d ask for clarity on the “middle America” phrasing as soon as it came into question, in our group. Other than that, I feel that we performed really well and I wouldn’t change much else.

If I were to redo the 4theBiz simulation, I’d print out the instructions document so that I can personally highlight all of the deliverable items. I would have read through it from beginning to end and not relied on my team to have done so. I think we all were on track until we left class at the end of Night One. Then half of our team was in Hawaii for an org trip and we lost our focus; no one person finished reading the instructions entirely. I believe that is what messed our group up and, if I had realized that I was leading the group, I would have ensured that I knew all elements were being addressed and completed.

My Perception and the Perceptions of Others

Synthesize what you learned about yourself this semester.

The first industry professional said that he thought that I was a wonderful leader and he would hire me to work as a manager without a second thought. He gave me high marks on the competencies; stating that I was at the “Met Requirements” or “Above & Beyond” performance levels.

The second professional said that I needed to work on my coaching skills, since I was the obvious leader. That was disappointing because I was not in a position to lead the group and was actively trying not to be the leader or else, I would have coached my team more. I felt that our group was working very well, without need of a leader, actually. They scored me harder on that competency, because of my role. Looking back, if I had known I was going to be graded harder on this, I would have pushed through and intentionally taken the leadership role.

I’ve learned that I need to just step into the role and not hold back anymore. My classmates are intelligent and capable and have no need for me to step back. They are all just as capable as I am in filling the leadership role, so I need to treat them as my equals and work to get the most I can out of this program.

Section 3: Competency Assessment

For each competency, list four behaviors that convey the essence of the competency in action aligned with your vision of the ideal leader in hospitality and tourism. You may find it helpful to review the competency definitions article and industry interviews. Then, for each competency, assess yourself currently using the rating scale below. These ratings will serve as your baseline assessment, and you will reassess your own development in future semesters. Your ratings are for the purpose of learning and growth only—ratings will not influence course grades. Enter a number of 1 through 7 for yourself for each of the competencies.

Section Four: Development Activity Ideas

Summary of Competency Assessment

From the entire list of 12 competencies, identify your top three strengths as well as three competencies that you need to develop.

Develop Activity Ideas

Development activities are customized mini projects that students design to enhance one or more of their competency areas. A typical development activity takes 10-20 total hours to complete during a semester. Development activities help students move closer to their idealized vision as leaders. Students customize development activities to take place in their own learning spaces—school, work, social clubs and other personal settings. It may be helpful to review the list of starter ideas on the following pages as well as the student created website Kaleidoscope Resources. In the table below, list 3-5 development activity ideas (project titles) that will help you develop one or more competencies, provide an opportunity to enhance your leadership, and/or help achieve a goal.  At least one of your activities should also help move you in the direction of your dream job. The first row of the table is filled in as an example.

Create your own Kaleidoscope Development Activity

Title: “Spirit of Optimism Journal”

Background:
I believe that keeping this journal can help me identify times when I respond well or poorly to various situations as well as provide a “look back” at how I can improve. It can help to improve my habits in how I respond to issues. This would be useful in my career, because it will train me, in advance, to recognize an issue and respond in a more positive manner which will be very good when I’m in front of my peers, team or the public. It can also help me appreciate the times when I performed really well in a given scenario or went above and beyond in a situation.

Description:
For the first month of the semester, I will document my positive or negative responses to notable situations, weekly. I will also notate how I could have better handled it, but will not work to change my actions at the time it occurs. This will be a time for observation and reflection only. In the second and third months, I will work to actively notice the situation and my initial reaction and work to improve my response at that time. This is where I will apply my reflections from the first month, so that I’m trying to change my response in the moment. Finally, in the last month of the semester, I will continue journaling the situations I come across, but also make a comment where I compare this situation to a previous situation and compare the actions I took then and now. In the last week of the semester, I will make a final journal entry documenting a self-evaluation on my progress from week one of the semester.

Success Indicators:
I believe that a successful indicator will be when I see that I’m not only going above and beyond to engage in genuine interactions, but also that I am able to more calmly and pleasantly address problems or issues that arise in my day-to-day life.