Fun fact about me – I played Rugby Sevens for years, including on a national team. It taught me more about engineering leadership than I expected. Small teams, huge space, high speed – Sevens and modern engineering run on the same dynamics.
Here are 7 lessons Sevens taught me about engineering leadership.
1️⃣ It’s Not About Weight – It’s About Teamwork
The first lesson I learned came from scrumming with a weight disadvantage but a huge coordination advantage. In Rugby (in 15s even more than in 7s), you don’t win scrums because your players are heavier. A team wins because: you bind together, you push at the same moment, you trust the rhythm. In lineouts, timing matters more than height, and coordination matters more than individual strength.
In engineering, this shows up everywhere:
- A brilliant engineer misaligned with the team slows progress.
- A “lighter” team moving in sync outperforms a group of heavy hitters pulling in different directions.
Velocity is not the sum of individual forces. It’s a synchronized force.
Lesson: Coordination multiplies talent.
2️⃣ Communication should be Constant and Loud
In Rugby Sevens, silence is dangerous. Players shout constantly:
- “Inside!”
- “Switch!”
- “Up!”
- “Blind!”
It’s not noise – it’s alignment. There’s too much space and speed to assume others know what you’re thinking.
In an office, you get accidental alignment:
- Body language
- Whiteboard moments
- Corridor clarifications
In remote work, silence becomes ambiguity. If communication isn’t explicit and frequent, gaps appear.
Lesson: Constant communication creates alignment. Alignment brings results.
3️⃣ You Can Only Pass Backwards
In rugby, you’re only allowed to pass the ball backwards.
If you want to move forward, you must either run forward yourself or align with teammates who are already in motion
You can’t throw the ball ahead and hope someone figures it out. The constraint forces structure.
- To gain ground, teams spread wide.
- They create overlap.
- They run support lines before they’re needed.
- They time short, precise passes.
You go forward by passing backward – and that only works with discipline. In engineering, this principle shows up everywhere. You can’t “pass forward” sloppily:
- Product can’t throw half-defined specs over the wall
- Engineering can’t push messy code to QA
- Leadership can’t announce strategy without alignment
When work is tossed ahead without positioning and support, the play breaks. Real velocity doesn’t come from heroic sprints. It comes from synchronized movement.
Too many handoffs? You lose momentum.
Too few? You get isolated and tackled.
Lesson: Sustainable forward progress requires structured alignment. Coordination creates speed.
4️⃣ Reset Between Games
In Sevens tournaments, you play multiple games on the same day.
Win big? Reset.
Lose badly? Reset.
The next kickoff has no memory.
Engineering teams often carry emotional baggage:
- A big launch → complacency
- An outage → overreaction
Strong teams don’t ignore outcomes – they process them quickly.
They celebrate briefly, learn fast, and show up focused for the next “game.”
Lesson: Don’t let yesterday’s result dictate today’s execution.
5️⃣ Scoring Under the Posts vs Securing the Try
In rugby, when a player breaks through, they often try to run closer to the center before grounding the ball.
Why? Because it makes the conversion kick easier.
But that extra effort increases the risk of being tackled and losing the try entirely.
In engineering:
- Do we ship now?
- Or optimize a bit more?
- Refactor first?
- Polish the UI further?
Sometimes we optimize the conversion and lose the try.
Lesson: Secure value first. Optimize second.
6️⃣ You Don’t Always Need More Resources – Just a Change of Angle
In Sevens, attacking the wide-open side is obvious. Great teams exploit the blind side instead.
You don’t need more force.
You need better perspective.
In engineering:
- Reframing a product problem
- Reorganizing teams instead of hiring more
- Solving a process issue instead of pushing harder
Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t scaling effort – it’s shifting angle.
Lesson: Strategy beats brute force.
7️⃣ Commit Fast – Adjust Faster
In Rugby Sevens, hesitation kills.
Pause before a tackle, you miss.
Delay the pass, the overlap’s gone.
Half-commit to a line break, and you get isolated.
The game rewards decisiveness.
Engineering leadership is the same. Over-analysis drains momentum. Once you pick a direction, the team needs full commitment – not tentative buy-in where everyone’s still hedging.
But here’s the nuance: when a defender overcommits, great players side-step. Decisiveness doesn’t mean rigidity. You commit fully, and when new information shows up or the situation shifts, you adjust fast – without ego, without drama.
Lesson: Commit hard. Adjust harder.
Tom Ron 