Devon Harris

Push Together, Win Together – The Power of Teamwork in Achieving the Impossible

Join three-time Olympian and former Jamaican bobsled team captain Devon Harris for an inspiring, interactive keynote that will transform the way you and your team approach collaboration, resilience, and success. In “Push Together, Win Together”, Devon draws from his extraordinary journey—from the military barracks to the Olympic track—to show how individuals can contribute to collective goals while harnessing the power of diverse skills and shared vision.

Through the engaging subheadings of Collective Compass, Legacy Mindset, Proactive Piloting, Talent Tapestry, and Steadfast Stamina, you’ll discover strategies to foster teamwork that doesn’t just achieve goals but breaks through barriers to achieve the impossible. Devon’s energetic storytelling and actionable insights will leave your team feeling empowered and equipped with practical tools to navigate challenges, tap into each other’s strengths, and stay resilient in the face of adversity.

The audience will learn how to:

• Align on a Shared Vision: Learn to create a compelling shared goal that resonates with and motivates every team member.
• Adopt a Legacy Mindset: Develop the ability to consider and shape the long-term impact of your actions and decisions, both in your career and personal life.
• Lead from Where You Are: Gain techniques to take initiative and lead effectively from any position, regardless of your formal title or role.
• Leverage Diverse Strengths: Master the art of identifying, valuing, and utilizing the unique strengths and perspectives of those around you.
• Stand Strong in Tough Times: Acquire strategies to develop mental toughness and maintain team cohesion in the face of setbacks and challenges.

Whether you’re a seasoned executive, a team leader, or an individual contributor, you’ll leave this session energized, inspired, and equipped with actionable strategies to transform your team’s performance. Get ready to laugh, learn, and be moved as Devon guides you through the principles that took him from underdog to Olympian – and that can take your team from ordinary to extraordinary.

Ride the Ice: Staying Calm in High-Pressure Situations

In a world where high-pressure situations are the norm, staying calm, focused, and effective is the ultimate key to success. Whether you’re facing tight deadlines, competitive markets, or personal challenges, how you respond under pressure can define the outcome.

Join Olympic bobsledder and former army officer Devon Harris for an empowering and engaging keynote that reveals how to master the art of calm amidst chaos. Drawing from his experience navigating high-stakes environments on and off the track, Devon will take you through his proven framework to help you not only survive high-pressure situations but thrive in them. Using the guiding principles of Pursue with Passion, Prioritize the Pivotal, Pause to Reflect, Prepare Proactively, Progress Piece by Piece, and Persevere through Pitfalls, this talk will equip you with practical strategies to stay cool, confident, and in control, no matter what comes your way.

Through a blend of riveting personal anecdotes, practical wisdom, and interactive exercises,

The audience will learn how to:

• Align Passion and Pressure: Passion-Pressure Learn to connect your core passions with high-pressure tasks, transforming stress into motivational fuel.
• Focus on What Matters Most: Develop the ability to quickly recognize and focus on the most critical elements in any high-pressure situation.
• Harness the Power of a Pause: Understand the value of taking a moment to breathe, reflect, and recalibrate.
• Prepare for the Unexpected: Learn proactive strategies to anticipate challenges and mentally rehearse success, so when the pressure hits, you’re ready to face it with confidence and composure.
• Break It Down into Manageable Steps: Discover how to stay calm by focusing on small, achievable actions that build momentum and lead to success, rather than being overwhelmed by the big picture.
• Persevere Through Setbacks: Gain techniques to build mental toughness, allowing you to bounce back stronger from setbacks and use failures as stepping-stones to success.

Whether you’re a business leader facing high-stakes decisions, a professional navigating a competitive industry, or an individual striving for personal growth, you’ll leave this session equipped with powerful tools to thrive under pressure. Get ready to be inspired, energized, and transformed as Devon guides you through the principles that took him from underdog to Olympian – and that can help you turn pressure into performance in your own life.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to “ride the ice” and stay cool when the stakes are highest!

Developing A Resilient Mindset

A highly engaging, high energy, high impact program in which Devon Harris demonstrates how to develop a resilient mindset and improve performance in a fast-paced world, swirling in a sea of uncertainty.

The presentation provides a POWER BOOST for the audience as Devon shares lessons learned during his personal journey, going from ghetto struggle to graduate of the most prestigious military training school in the world.

He also shares the tools that he has seen at work with athletes in the Olympics — the same ones he used with his soldiers as an army captain to help them become mentally tough so that they no longer felt deflated or even defeated but confident and determined.

Devon shares the tools that he and other Olympic athletes and military leaders employ to stay confident and focused in the face of adversity, temporary setbacks, or defeat.

Audience takeaways include how to:

• take personal responsibility regardless of the uncontrollable event impacting them
• reframe an experience in order to reduce stress and feel empowered
• Bounce back from setbacks, frustration, or the occasional out-right failure.

The Captain’s Toolbox: Developing Essential Leadership Traits

Leadership isn’t defined by the job title, expertise, or years of experience. It’s about developing the perspective, skills and personal style to get results that matter. Even “born leaders” don’t know or portray all the right traits or decisions at the starting line.  We are all works in progress who can transform ourselves into effective leaders and more vital and valuable resources to our organizations. Expanding on the idea that “leaders are made not born” and building on the lessons he learned as a military leader and Olympic team captain, Devon’s program:

• focuses on individual development
• affirms that those empowered to manage, supervise or direct others can continuously learn, grow and change.
• equips attendees with the knowledge and skills to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses to quickly become more adroit leaders
• presents proven techniques and methods that help leaders become more effective in guiding their teams to genuinely buy in and reach their goals on or ahead of schedule.

Audience takeaways include how to:

• Inspire through authentic communication
• genuinely empower others
• become and stay a role model.

Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings – Coaching for Personal and Professional Success

In this program Devon Harris skillfully weaves the real life improbable inspirational story of the Jamaica bobsled team with the entertaining portrayal of the Disney blockbuster Cool Runnings. He highlights some of the powerful life lessons he and his teammates learned along the way – lessons the audience can immediately apply to both their personal and professional lives.

Suitable as an opening or closing keynote.

Some of these lessons and many more can also be found in Devon’s book Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings.

Audience takeaways include how to:

• conquer fear
• employ the extraordinary power of visualization to achieve success
• build self-esteem and confidence
• define success on your own terms
• persist in the face of insurmountable odds

The Power and Magic of Teamwork

This inspiring message sees Devon drawing on his personal experiences as the Captain of the Jamaican Bobsled Team and a former Sandhurst-trained Captain in the Jamaica Defence Force, to show how working collaboratively facilitates group/team, individual professional, and personal non-work related success.

The key ingredients for this power and magic elixir include:

• defining and owning a clear vision
• empowering leadership, and
• having a process of self-evaluation and persistence

Using humor, engaging stories and powerful insights, Devon translates the challenges and triumphs of being in the military and competing in the Olympics into lessons and insights that will inspire them to reach peak levels as a team. Suitable as an opening or closing keynote.

The audience will learn how:

• a clear vision allows a team to remain motivated, become remarkably efficient, and control the direction of change.
• to identify their noble purpose – the far-reaching benefits of the mundane things they do daily.
• to transform their organization by growing their capacity to lead.
• to use the process of self-evaluation to help them move towards their full potential.

Out of many; One: An Olympic Athlete’s View of Diversity in the Workplace

Devon Haris brings a fresh look at how diversity in the workplace is not just a legal mandate or corporate ethic.  It is fundamentally practical to building the best team for international, national or local competition.  With many cross-cultural experiences and the authenticity that comes from living what he believes, the 3-time Olympian delivers a compelling global message to groups of all sizes on how embracing diversity can lead to greater bottom-line success.

Suitable as an opening or closing keynote.

The audience will learn how:

• a clear personal vision supersedes society’s assumptions
• attracting top talent regardless of labels and providing an open, nurturing environment enables peak performance for individuals and team/organization.
• Valuing and maintaining differences can create a more fulfilling experience and greater potential.