VALORA CALMA | FORCES & FLOW: What Raindrops Taught Me About Leadership

When I was four years old, I would sit by the window during storms and watch raindrops move down the glass.

Some moved slowly and stopped. Others merged with nearby drops and suddenly accelerated. Some traveled almost straight down while others wandered in unpredictable zigzags.

I had no idea which path a drop would take.

Years later, after becoming an engineer, I understood some of the physics behind what I had been watching. And after becoming a leader, I started seeing something else.

People are influenced by forces too.

Different forces can make us stronger

Water sticks to glass because of adhesion. The water and the glass are different materials, yet their interaction allows a droplet to remain attached to a vertical surface.

I see something similar in strong partnerships.

I do not necessarily need someone who thinks like me. Some of my strongest partnerships have come from people whose abilities complement mine.

Different does not have to mean incompatible.

Sometimes difference is exactly what makes the system work.

Connection creates cohesion

Water molecules also attract one another. This is cohesion.

When droplets meet, they tend to merge.

Teams behave similarly. Shared experiences create identity, trust, and the feeling of “us.”

A load that is heavy for one person can become manageable when it is distributed across a strong team.

I have often led teams of fewer than six people and called them “small but mighty.”

My question as a leader is increasingly: how do I preserve that trust and cohesion as an organization grows?

Movement can begin long before we see it

A raindrop may appear perfectly still even though gravity is pulling on it. As more water joins the drop, its weight increases. Eventually gravity becomes stronger than the forces holding it in place.

Then it moves.

People experience something similar.

Someone leaves a job. Goes back to school. Moves to another country. Returns to an old passion. Starts something new.

To everyone else, it can look sudden.

But what looks sudden is often the final drop, not the beginning of the decision.

The visible movement may happen in one day while the internal forces have been accumulating for years.

Environment shapes the path

Glass appears smooth, but microscopic variations, dust, oils, scratches, and surface chemistry influence where a droplet travels.

People respond to environments too.

When I make the desired choice easier for someone, they are often more likely to take it.

That has changed the way I think about leadership.

Instead of always asking:

How do I push harder?

I can ask:

What resistance can I remove?

The first person spends more energy

After one raindrop travels down a window, it leaves behind a wet trail. Another droplet may find that route easier to follow.

People do this too.

We call it going with the flow, following precedent, or not rocking the boat.

The person who creates a new path often spends more energy than the people who come behind them.

One of our responsibilities as leaders is not simply to tell people to be courageous.

Sometimes it is to create the first trail—or make it easier for the next person.

I still think about those raindrops.

As an engineer, I learned to understand the forces acting on systems.

As a leader, I am learning to understand the forces acting on people.

And I keep asking myself:

Where should I add energy?
Where should I remove resistance?
Where should I create a new path?
And where should I simply give someone room to move?

Stay grounded. Rise strong.