Toyin Dada Standing on Service Culture
Whether in hospitality, operations, training, leadership development or organisational capability, the hospitality executive Toyin Dada has spent nearly three decades exploring what makes
people perform, grow and give their best, Vanessa Obioha writes
Toyin Dada carries an unassuming air. There is little about her demeanour that immediately announces the breadth of a career spent navigating some of the most demanding corners of hospitality. Spend a little time in conversation with her, and you’d begin to see the different layers of a woman who has spent nearly three decades understanding how people shape organisations.
But beneath the structured, purposeful professional persona is someone who values simpler things: good conversations, genuine relationships, laughter, and moments with the people who matter to her.
Across roles spanning hospitality, operations, training, leadership development and organisational capability, Dada has worked with internationally recognised brands including Eko Hotels & Suites, Le Méridien and Best Western. Her experience cuts across hotel development, pre-opening, operations management, service excellence, quality assurance, organisational transformation and workforce development.
Of all the titles she has held and the expertise she has accumulated, she prefers a simpler description of what she does: People and Capability Development.
“I have worn different hats and worked across different aspects of hospitality and business, but the common denominator has always been people; helping people discover their potential, building their capability and creating environments where they can perform at their best.”
Her different roles have simply given her different perspectives on how those pieces come together. She believes organisational excellence is never accidental; rather, it is built through people, systems, culture and consistent standards.
Her work has since expanded beyond hospitality. As a learning and development consultant, she helps organisations identify what they need, understand what enables people to succeed and build the bridge between the two.
“Ultimately, I see my work as helping people and organisations become better versions of themselves.”
Dada started her career in an industry where the quality of an organisation is experienced through its people: hospitality. There, the job is not only to make guests feel comfortable, but to build teams capable of delivering that experience consistently.
However, she believes the sector has evolved considerably since then. It is no longer enough to simply deliver a service; the emphasis has shifted towards creating an experience.
Today’s guests, she argued, are more informed, more connected and more willing to share their experiences publicly. A single interaction can therefore influence not only how a guest perceives a hotel, but how hundreds or even thousands of potential customers perceive it. Technical competence remains important, but it is no longer sufficient, she said. Employees must also be able to read situations, understand emotions, anticipate needs and exercise judgement.
“The question is no longer just, ‘Did we follow the procedure?’ but also, ‘How did we make the person feel?’”
For Dada, that distinction is what separates service delivery from hospitality.
“You can follow every procedure correctly and still leave a guest feeling poorly treated. Hospitality goes beyond the transaction. It is about how people feel in our presence.”
She often uses real-life situations when training staff because “people connect more deeply with experiences than with instructions.”
A receptionist may check in dozens of guests in a day, but for the person standing in front of the desk, the moment may mark the beginning of a long-awaited holiday, an important business trip or a special family occasion. The employee, therefore, is not simply processing another check-in. According to her, they are becoming part of someone else’s experience.
“I encourage people to ask themselves: ‘If this were my experience, how would I want to be treated?’ That simple question can change the way we approach service.”
A memorable experience, she insisted, is rarely about extravagance. It can be as simple as remembering a guest’s preference, anticipating a need, resolving a problem without making the guest work for the solution or showing genuine warmth.
“The best hospitality organisations understand that people may forget exactly what you did, but they are unlikely to forget how you made them feel. That is where culture becomes so important because the experience is created by people at every touchpoint.”
Technology can sometimes make this balance more complicated. Customers increasingly expect speed and convenience, and technology can remember preferences, process bookings, answer questions and make recommendations. Dada still believes efficiency should not come at the expense of human connection.
“Technology should enhance hospitality, not remove humanity from it.”
That is particularly relevant to the Nigerian customer, whose expectations have evolved alongside greater exposure to international standards and digital platforms.
“We still value warmth, relationships and personal attention very highly. So while technology has raised expectations around speed and convenience, the human connection remains extremely important.”
The challenge therefore, in her view, is not choosing between technology and people, but knowing where each is most valuable. As much as technology can make an interaction faster, people determine whether it feels meaningful.
And for that experience to be reliable, it cannot depend on whether a particular employee happens to be having a good day. It requires culture, systems, standards and leadership that make good hospitality repeatable.
But if hospitality can be taught, can care be taught too? For Dada, it all comes down to character.
“Skills can be developed through training, coaching, practice and experience. The character is much deeper,” she explained.
“It is reflected in how someone behaves when nobody is watching, how they respond under pressure, how they treat people who cannot do anything for them, and whether they take responsibility when things go wrong.”
Nonetheless, she believes people can still grow in character.
“We need to be very intentional about the behaviours and values that we hire for, recognise and reward. You can teach someone how to serve a guest; it is much harder to teach genuine care if they have no desire to care.”
One challenge she sees across organisations is the way hierarchy can sometimes inhibit innovation. Nigeria’s culturally hierarchical environment, she noted, makes the relationship between authority, age and organisational structure particularly important. The answer, she believes, is to distinguish respect for authority from fear of authority.
For instance, she cited situations where younger team leaders find it difficult to lead team members who are older biologically or have more years in the organisation.
Hierarchy, she stressed, should provide structure without becoming a barrier to questioning existing ways of doing things.
“Organisations should understand that some, if not most, of the people closest to the customer are often the people with the clearest understanding of what needs to change because they experience the problems every day.
“Leaders therefore need to create psychological safety; an environment where people can respectfully say, ‘There may be a better way of doing this,’ without being labelled.
“If we listen to the voice of the customer, it is important that we listen to the employees as well; they are the internal customers and solutions often come from them. Innovation doesn’t always require a major transformation. Sometimes it begins with giving people permission to ask a simple question: ‘Why do we do it this way?’”
Organisations also need to see people as more than costs or resources to be deployed. Rather, they should be seen as individuals with aspirations, emotions, strengths and potential.
“People don’t come to work and leave their humanity at the door. Their motivation, sense of belonging, relationship with their manager and belief in the organisation all influence their performance. If organisations want discretionary effort, they must create the conditions that make people want to give it. People generally perform better when they feel respected, trusted, valued and clear about how their contribution matters.”
Nearly three decades of working in an industry defined by pressure, expectations and constant interaction with people have taught Dada the value of resilience and reinvention.
“I have learned to remain composed even when circumstances are not ideal. It has also demanded that I continually reinvent myself. What worked 10 or 20 years ago may not necessarily work today. But what it has given me is far greater: relationships, experiences, wisdom, confidence and the privilege of seeing people grow. It has given me the opportunity to influence lives beyond my immediate job description, and that is something I value deeply.”
She is also more reflective than her decisiveness might suggest. She remembers conversations, people and moments, carrying many of those experiences with her.
“I also think people may not realise how deeply I reflect on things. I can appear very decisive, but I spend a great deal of time thinking about people, situations and what could have been done differently. At the heart of it, I am probably much more sentimental than my professional persona suggests. I remember people, conversations and moments, and I carry many of those experiences with me.”
At the end of the day, what remains with Dada is not the titles she has accumulated, but the people.
“I remember the people I worked with, the people who taught me something, the people I was privileged to develop, and the people whose lives I may have influenced in some small way.”
At this stage of her career, she measures success by impact rather than roles: whether she made someone better, helped someone see possibilities they could not see for themselves, or left an organisation, team or individual stronger than she found them.
“People may not remember every instruction you gave or every target you achieved, but they will remember whether you believed in them, whether you listened, whether you treated them with dignity and whether you helped them become better.
“I believe that the real measure of a career is not simply what you achieved, but what became possible for other people because you were there,” she concluded.
