Leading at Speed: Agile Lessons from Olympic Bobsledding for Tech Leaders

Let me take you to the top of a bobsled run.

You’re standing with your team, legs tense, heart racing. You have trained for this. In seconds, you'll be rocketing down a frozen track in excess of 80 mph. No brakes, no steering wheel, just ropes and muscle memory. Does this sound familiar? It should. It's not that different from launching a new product in tech.

Back when I was part of the original Jamaican bobsled team, we had no money, no sled, no cold weather. Just belief and grit. People laughed. But we still showed up and pushed anyway. That's what disruptors do. They enter spaces where they “shouldn't belong” and make noise.

Bobsledding taught me things that now hit home in tech. If you're leading in a fast-moving industry, I promise the parallels are stronger than you'd expect.

Start Fast, but Start Aligned

In bobsledding, the start is everything. The first 50 meters set your trajectory. One misstep, and you are off the optimal line- maybe even flipped upside down. My neck still remembers that lesson.

Speed without alignment is wasted. Tech teams have been known to launch with urgency but without cross-team clarity. Product rushes. Engineer’s scrambling. Customer success doesn't even have the road map. That's not agility. That's chaos.

When my bobsled team launched off the blocks, we moved like one machine. Fast, yes- but synchronized. That's how your teams should operate. Not micromanaged. Not siloed. But locked into a shared rhythm with a clear direction. Because once you're in motion, it's less about control and more about adjusting course as you go.

Decide like the track is coming at you

In bobsledding, you don't get to pause and ask the team what they think. The curves don't wait. You make a call- now. And you own it. Tech’s the same way. Markets shift overnight. New competitors pop up. Customers flip their priorities. Great leaders don't freeze. They build what I call decision fitness- that ability to act with confidence under pressure.

It's not about having every piece of data. It's about knowing which signals matter. In a sled, I'd ignore 90% of what I was feeling and lock in on a few critical cues. You need to do the same with your dashboards. Ditch the noise. Lead on the data that counts.

Lead at the edge of control

Here's the truth: the straightaways are easy. It's the curves that test you. You are riding the edge of physics- too aggressive, and you crash. Too cautious, and you lose your edge.

Can you relate?

Tech leadership lives in that tension. Push too hard and your people burnout. Play it safe and you'll get leapfrogged. The key is knowing your team like I knew my sled. Feel the subtle signs. When your best developer starts missing stand-ups, that's your warning flag. Pay attention before it becomes a full wipeout.

Trust isn't optional- It's survival

You can't steer a bobsled team by barking orders. Once you're in, you can't see or speak. You have to trust that everyone knows their job and will do it perfectly at 5 G's of pressure.

That trust? It's not built on race day. It comes from hours of working through mistakes, learning each other's blind spots. And training like it matters- because it does.

Research shows that teams without strong trust foundations consistently buckle when faced with high pressure situations. The moment a bug hits production, everyone's pointing fingers. Real teams, the high performing kind, don't do that. They rally. They solve. Because they have built the foundation together.

Adapt Like the Ice Is Melting  

In bobsledding, the track changes with the sun. Every run is different. You can't memorize it. You read it. You react.

Tech doesn't wait, either. Today it's AI. Tomorrow it’s quantum. Next week it's something that hasn't even made the buzzword list yet. You have to read the terrain before you're in the curve. Don't wait until you're skidding to realize you need a new line.

Chase Precision, Not Perfection

Every bobsled run ends the same way-  with your team shooting through the finish, breathing hard, knowing they gave everything. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don’t. But when you have executed with precision, there's no regret.

That's the energy your team should feel at the end of every sprint, launch, or quarter. Not burnout. Not confusion. But pride.

The race never really ends in tech. But if you lead with speed, trust, and clarity, you won't just keep up- you'll pull ahead.

So ask yourself: is your dream aligned? Are you reading the ice? Are you pushing hard, and smart?

The clock is ticking. Let's get moving.

Keep. On. Pushing!