Leadership development programme helps managers deliver effective service
To help the tourism industry grow, a weeklong Leadership Development Programme (LDP) workshop is being facilitated by The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association’s (FHTA).
The workshop is held at the FHTA conference room in Suva.
The workshop is expedited by Jagdishwar Singh, an Australian-based expert in designing and delivering leadership development programmes for executives and senior managers in Fiji.
FHTA chief executive officer Fantasha Lockington said the purpose of this workshop is to up-skill knowledge and adopt a more strategic approach to their business role.
“This is in direct response to the extraordinary positive feedback from LDP graduates subsequence performance on their return to the workplace,” Ms Lockington said.
“The demand for more development of future tourism leaders is high and we want to train these managers to cut down on bringing overseas experts.”
The workshop will enhance industry leaders to understand the factors impacting the tourism industry.
Tourism encompasses all aspects of the economy, contributing 40 per cent to the economy, 17 per cent directly to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ms Lockington said the LDP will comprise two intensive modules where participants will explore their strengths and developments
as managers and leaders.
“It will help them assess their effectiveness and consider new approaches in leading and managing teams,” Ms Lockington said.
She said when these managers finish the workshop, they take back what they have learnt and teach their colleagues.
“This is evidence-based as they have to fill in their log books and when they come for module 2, they have to get the logbooks,” Ms Lockington said.
In this way, the employees are groomed well and we can have our local people trained to be managers or take up senior managers posts.
Ms Lockington said in 2017 tourism earned $1.8 billion compared to $1.6 billion in 2016.
“The demand is high for hotel rooms but we do have enough trained personnel,” Ms Lockington said. “We need to develop better self-awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses for career development to have an improved understanding of the techniques of managing performance.” The workshop concludes on Friday in Suva.