Sociologists have named the years between 30 and 40 the “rush hour of life.” This is the phase when everything must come together: building a house, starting a family, making headway in one’s career. Young group leaders and junior professors are right in the middle of this phase. What does that mean for them in particular, and how can they master the associated challenges with vigor?

After completing their PhD and stints as postdocs, all YIN members have successfully applied for their own grant money and are now leading a research group for which they have supervisory responsibilities. Unlike earlier YIN generations, most have already committed themselves to the long-term responsibility of starting a family with a partner likewise employed and one, two, or even more children. Another thing they all have in common, however, is a limited employment con- tract meaning long-term professional uncertainty.

How do you successfully maneuver through this demanding phase? Psychologists count on resilience: the ability to adapt well to difficult challenges and stressful situations and even to turn them into a springboard for personal development.

For years, resilience was considered to be a relatively unchangeable aspect of an individual’s personality. More recent studies, however, have revealed a different picture: resilience can in fact be acquired and enhanced! Developing resilience is about investing oneself in a dynamic self-management process whose rewards are paid out in perpetuity and which can be initiated or accel- erated at any time. Here, along with an unsurprising improvement in their subjective sense of well-being, research leaders also stand to profit in another important way: In today’s digitized,highly-networked workplace, one characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, it is only logical that leaders who possess outstanding resilience will also be more likely to rise to the top and outlast the competition.

To learn something new, we must step out of our comfort zone and experiment with previously unfamiliar modes of behavior. This step takes a bit of courage, of course, but it pays off with the possibility of personal and professional growth. New behaviors are tried out, refined, and eventually integrated into an expanding repertoire, thus promoting flexibility and increasing options. Just as the immune system requires real infectious agents to trigger the development of its defenses, personal growth also requires real challenges to trigger the development of resilience.4 The ultimate question is not whether we have gained insight, but whether we can use our insight to fuel useful changes in behavior.

The members of YIN have already mastered an extensive series of challenges and, as a result, have long since begun to enhance their resilience. I would like to encourage them all to consciously use the demanding “rush hour of life" to re-invigorate their endeavors, to take appropriately-sized steps outside their comfort zone, and integrate the resulting insights into their everyday lives. There might even lurk some undiscovered insights in a blind spot, which might be made visible and even profitable with the help of a coach.

I would be happy to serve as a sounding board for all YIN members who wish to take their own personal “resilience inventory”. In addition, I can describe the Network resources available to support you in moving ahead from here to expand your repertoire of skillful responses and better meet the challenges inherent to research leadership.