As a cross-cultural management consultant based in Europe, I work with international organisations to fix cultural friction through workshops, advisory and coaching.
{“className”:”seo-only”} –>A cross-cultural consultant working with European teams and international organisations across Europe to reduce cultural friction, improve cross-cultural communication, and build effective ways of working across cultures. Workshops, intercultural training, leadership coaching and mentoring, and advisory support for EMEA teams and for multinational organisations across sectors including offshore energy, marine and hydrographic survey, subsea and maritime operations across Europe.
Cross-Cultural Management Consultant for European Teams
European organisations lose time, trust and performance to cultural friction. I work with international teams across Europe to name it, address it, and build the shared norms that make collaboration work. Much of this work is with organisations whose teams are international by design — offshore energy, marine and hydrographic survey, subsea and maritime operations especially — though the same cultural friction appears in any multinational organisation, whatever the sector.
Europe is not one culture. It is dozens — with different assumptions about authority, communication, feedback, and trust operating simultaneously in organisations that assume they share a common framework.
A Dutch manager and an Italian colleague can be working in the same company, in the same meeting, toward the same objective — and still leave that meeting with fundamentally different understandings of what was agreed, who is responsible, and what happens next. Neither is wrong. They are operating from cultural defaults that nobody has ever made explicit.
This is cultural friction — and it is the most consistent underperformance driver in European international teams. I work with organisations across Europe to surface it, name it, and fix it.
A cross-cultural consultant for organisations across Europe
Where I Work Across Europe
Based in Barcelona, I work with European organisations in person and remotely — travelling to client locations across Europe where in-person delivery is needed, and working online for distributed or hybrid teams.
UK, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia — typically egalitarian, direct, task-oriented teams managing colleagues or partners from higher-context, more hierarchical cultures.
Spain, Catalonia, Italy, France — relationship-oriented cultures where trust, context, and informal communication channels carry significant weight that external partners often miss.
London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona — regional headquarters managing distributed teams across multiple European countries and time zones.
Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary — teams navigating the intersection of hierarchical Central European business culture with more egalitarian Western European leadership models.
The geography matters less than the cultural configuration. What I am interested in is the specific combination of cultures in your team — and the particular friction points that combination is generating.
The Cultural Friction That Costs European Teams Most
European cross-cultural friction is rarely dramatic. It doesn’t look like conflict. It looks like decisions that stall, collaboration that stays surface-level, and performance that falls short of what a team with this much talent should be producing. Here are the patterns I encounter most consistently:
The European Context I Bring
I have worked across the UK, Spain, West Africa, and internationally for over 25 years. I am based in Barcelona — which means I understand the Southern European business context from the inside, not just from research. I lecture on cross-cultural communication at SBS Swiss Business School in Barcelona, and I am a member of SIETAR Europe.
Barcelona sits at the intersection of Northern and Southern European business culture — a city where Catalan directness meets Spanish relationship orientation, where German and Dutch multinationals work daily with Spanish and Latin American teams. Working from here provides direct, practical access to the cultural dynamics that most European cross-cultural challenges are actually built from. It also means European travel is straightforward — I am within two hours of most major European business cities.
How I Work with European Organisations
The work is always specific to your team and your situation — not a generic programme delivered the same way to every client. I typically work in four formats, sometimes combined:
Half-day or full-day structured sessions for global or multicultural teams — surfacing hidden assumptions, building shared norms, and creating a common language for working across cultural difference. Delivered in person across Europe or remotely.
Focused development for leaders and managers of multicultural teams — building the specific cross-cultural skills that change how teams communicate, make decisions, give feedback, and build trust. Particularly relevant for European EMEA leaders.
Sustained support for leaders navigating complex cross-cultural environments — working through specific challenges as they arise, developing cross-cultural leadership capability over time, and embedding lasting change across the organisation.
A structured diagnostic that surfaces and names the specific cultural friction in your team before any intervention begins — giving European organisations a clear, evidence-based picture of what is actually happening and where the cost sits.
Every engagement starts with a conversation about what is actually happening in your team.
Working with a European team experiencing cultural friction?
30 minutes is usually enough to understand what’s happening and whether I can help. No pitch — just a conversation about your team and what’s getting in the way.
Book a discovery call See the workshopsCross-Cultural Workshops
Structured sessions for global and multicultural teams — building shared norms and reducing everyday friction in communication, feedback and decision-making.
See all workshops →Leadership Training
For managers of multicultural teams — developing the cross-cultural leadership skills that make a measurable difference in how teams communicate and perform.
View the workshop →Advisory & Coaching
Ongoing support for leaders navigating cross-cultural complexity — coaching, mentoring, and advisory work tailored to your specific situation and team.
Learn more →A cross-cultural consultant working with European teams and international organisations across Europe to reduce cultural friction, improve cross-cultural communication, and build effective ways of working across cultures. Workshops, intercultural training, leadership coaching and mentoring, and advisory support for EMEA teams and for multinational organisations across sectors including offshore energy, marine and hydrographic survey, subsea and maritime operations across Europe.