Workshop portfolio · Ex-LinkedIn Sales Director
Working, leading and doing business across cultures. Facilitated, not lectured.
For 12 years I worked for US tech companies: LinkedIn, Oracle and Pluralsight. I ran teams across Europe and the Middle East made up of people from more than 20 cultures, reported into American leadership, and I have lived in Dubai for years. I run workshops for managers and teams in any function: delivery, IT, finance, HR, sales. Three areas: working with US headquarters, doing business and building relationships in the Gulf, leading multicultural teams.
Facilitator profile
Alicja Szaraniec is a Dubai-based B2B sales strategist and cross-cultural workshop facilitator, and a former LinkedIn Sales Director who has led teams across Europe and the Middle East.
I started at Oracle making hundreds of cold calls a day and worked my way up through every sales role across Central and Eastern Europe. At LinkedIn I was a Sales Director: in Dublin I led a team covering CEE, and in Dubai I led a team in LinkedIn's MENA office and headed LinkedIn Learning for MENA. At Pluralsight I was Senior Director, leading Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
All of that time I worked for US companies and reported into American leadership while running teams in Europe and the Middle East. I also worked closely with Vista Equity Partners, the private equity firm. My teams were made up of people from more than 20 cultures. I promoted many women from individual contributor into leadership and acted as their sponsor. I am based in Dubai and work in Polish and English.
I have worked, led and done business across Europe, the Gulf and American headquarters. Now I teach others how to do it.
Areas
For managers and teams in Europe, in any function, who report into the US or work with American stakeholders every day. For 12 years I worked for US tech companies and reported into American leadership from Dublin and from Dubai.
How business works in Dubai and the wider GCC: culture, relationships, time, hierarchy, how decisions get made and how trust is built. For leadership, delivery, IT and sales teams entering the region or working with Gulf clients and partners. I live and work in Dubai; I led a team in LinkedIn's MENA office and headed LinkedIn Learning for MENA.
For managers whose team does not share one culture, one time zone or one definition of "yes", and for managers relocating to the Gulf to lead one. I have led teams made up of people from more than 20 cultures.
One-page strategy sessions, choosing the first market, visibility for leaders and LinkedIn from the inside. Support for the three areas above, not a separate offer.
Workshop catalogue
I am not a generic leadership trainer. Every topic here is about working across cultures or across borders: with American headquarters, in the Gulf, or in a team that does not share one culture. Most cross-cultural training is academic. Mine is practitioner-led and shows Europe, the Gulf and the US relationship from the inside, because that is where I have worked and lived. Two flagship workshops, one for each direction. Scope and length are set after a short diagnosis with the sponsor.
01FlagshipWorking with US headquarters
For managers and teams in Europe, in any function, who report into the US or work with American head office every day. How to read feedback from the US, how to raise risk and bad news, how to win decisions and budget when your boss works in another time zone. We open with a real situation from my years reporting into American leadership. Then one light model, and practice on your own situations.
02Working with US headquarters
The same update is clear in Warsaw and vague in San Francisco. How to write and say things so a stakeholder in another country hears what you meant: asks, status, risks and bad news. Fewer words, earlier, with the decision you need at the top.
03Working with US headquarters
In one culture silence means no. In another, "interesting" means no. How to push back on a manager, a client or a partner, say no without burning the relationship, and recognise disagreement that is never said out loud. Practised in trios on participants' own situations.
04FlagshipDoing business in the Gulf
For European teams entering the UAE and the wider GCC, or working with clients and partners from the region. Culture and etiquette without stereotypes. Relationship before process: time, hospitality, hierarchy, trust before paper. Who really decides, and what a "yes" is worth. When to enter through a partner. I open with a real situation from my years in Dubai.
05Doing business in the Gulf
Not a sales workshop. A workshop on how trust is built in the Gulf before anyone talks about a contract: the first meeting, the coffee, who sits where, what silence means, how to keep a relationship warm between meetings, how to work with a local partner without losing the relationship with the client. For anyone who represents the company to people from the region.
06Doing business in the Gulf
For commercial teams. How a deal moves in Warsaw and how it moves in Dubai, and why the same playbook stalls when it crosses a border. Relationship before process or process before relationship, the buying committee, time and pace.
07Multicultural teams
For managers in any function whose team does not share one culture, one time zone or one definition of "yes". Feedback, trust, decisions and accountability when half your team sits in another country. One light model, read as a map of your own team rather than a stereotype of nations.
08Multicultural teams
For Europeans relocating to Dubai to lead a team of Emirati, Arab, Asian and European colleagues. What to do in the first week, what not to say in the first meeting, how to read hierarchy and loyalty in the team, how to give feedback that lands, and how not to become the "boss from Europe" who never understood where he was.
09Multicultural teams
The mirror image of the flagship, for teams in the Gulf whose leadership sits in London, Dublin or the US. How to be heard from a region head office does not understand well, how to translate local reality into language head office accepts, and how to defend decisions that look strange from far away.
10Strategy and visibility
Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Measures. A leadership team leaves with one page everyone can repeat, instead of a deck nobody reads.
11Strategy and visibility
A structured way for a leadership team to decide where to grow next, before committing people and budget. Less opinion, more evidence, one agreed priority.
12Strategy and visibility
Internal visibility, owning your achievements, finding a sponsor and not just a mentor, and a personal brand that reflects how you actually lead. Includes LinkedIn for leaders, taught from the inside.
13Strategy and visibility
Profile optimisation, content strategy and pipeline generation through LinkedIn, including for international teams working in English. Live work with templates. The full-day version includes feedback on each participant's profile and posts.
Don't see your topic? Most of my work is custom. Tell me what your leaders are struggling with and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
Formats
60 to 90 min
Online or in person
One topic, one sharp takeaway. For leadership events, communities and internal leadership series.
Half day
3 to 4 hours, in person
Interactive and hands-on. Participants work on their own real situations and leave with something they built in the room.
Full day
In person
I facilitate, you decide. For leadership teams that need to agree on direction, priorities or a one-page strategy.
3 online sessions
2.5 to 3 hours each
If it has to be online, I split it into three sessions instead of one long day. Between sessions participants practise on their own situations and come back with what worked and what did not.
Pricing is per group, not per person, and covers the diagnosis call, the design, the delivery, materials and a note to the sponsor afterwards. Travel outside Dubai and Poland at cost. Training firms get the BUR-format description. Quote within two working days of a brief.
How I work
A call with the sponsor before anything else. What is happening in the team, what has already been tried, and what has to be different after the session.
A session built around your context and your people, not an off-the-shelf deck. Frameworks your leaders can use the next working day.
Live, interactive facilitation in the room or online. Real situations, real practice, real decisions.
From the room
Experience and references
As Head of LinkedIn Learning for MENA, she brought a rare blend of strategic clarity, empathy, and adaptability that transformed our team.She ran the business like a true sales leader: clear GTM, smart coverage, clean operating rhythm, and a forecast I could trust. …Under her leadership the team landed seven-figure wins with flagship banks and industrials in UAE/KSA and turned them into repeatable plays.Alicja hosted a hands-on LinkedIn workshop for Women in Tech UAE, and her knowledge of different markets and industries really came through. It was incredibly useful for our members and we received several requests for additional workshops with Alicja.Her knowledge is exceptional, and her experience working at LinkedIn gave us insights you simply won't get from a typical trainer. …One thing everyone noticed was that Alicja personally greeted every attendee before the workshop started.I learned from her every step of the way not only about business strategy and leadership, but also about resilience, balance, and how to lead with heart.As a manager she excels at coaching for performance and genuinely cares about each person on her team.For training and coaching firms
I deliver as an associate for training companies and join executive coaching panels. English and Polish, in person across Poland, Europe and the Gulf, or online. My strongest programmes: working with American leadership, doing business in the Gulf, and leading multicultural teams. For Polish training firms I supply descriptions in the BUR format: educational goal, learning outcomes, how they are verified, agenda and hours. I live in Dubai and have Polish roots, so I can be the bridge between Poland and the GCC.
Contact
Full workshop descriptions, the brief form and my calendar are on alicjaszaraniec.com. We can also start with 30 minutes on what is happening in your team.