IST 19 · Simon Taufel · HOWZAT

Simon Taufel: My life is hopefully far from over — I've just turned 50, so hopefully there's another 50 years in me to get to 100 not out. Life's a journey and we're all a work in progress. We're never the finished product, and every day is a learning experience and a learning opportunity.

Srikanth: They say success leaves trails, and that's true in your case too — you couldn't have reached the top without deliberate action and practice. Walk us through the process.

Simon Taufel: I was lucky when I started my first-class career as a cricket umpire — I'd classify myself as an accidental umpire. I didn't go into it with a particular vision or goal to reach test-match level; I got involved through a bit of a challenge and a bit of luck, and I think in life we all need a bit of luck from time to time. For me it was about being the best I could be and only trying to compete against myself.

The luck was growing up in an environment — the New South Wales Umpires Association — with tremendous experience, knowledge, mentorship, intellectual property, call it what you will. People around me were able to share and impart their knowledge, and I was smart enough to listen and try new things — then the opportunities were endless. There's also an element of being in the right place at the right time: I was able to tap into the resources of Cricket Australia in the early 2000s, when the Australian team was the best side in the world for many years under Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting — their performance department, dietitians, fitness advisors, health and wellbeing strategists — and to learn from those performance-minded individuals what made them tick.

But outside of luck, for me it was about leaving a legacy — taking on board Bradman's ideology of always leave the game in a better position than when you found it. It was never about me. The role of the umpire is to keep the focus on the cricket, make the right decisions, and deliver what the game expects — as long as you're not focused on taking more out of the game than you're prepared to contribute. That legacy is about trying to leave umpiring in a better situation than you found it, making it easier for the next generation — a better environment, more resources, better conditions. It's about leading by serving the game, not leading to be the centre of the game. Your listeners might reflect on people in the game who like the game to be about them, versus people who are always looking to improve it for generations that follow.

One is the environment, one is that you're not larger than the game itself — the game is larger — and the third is having access to and tapping the right resources: listening skills and the humility that you don't know it all, and being prepared to listen to smarter people than yourself. One of the great things about cricket as a sport is whenever you think you've got the game figured out, there's that one ball that comes along that's too good for you — a great leveller. Humility is a really important attitude everyone needs to practise, along with clarity of thought — knowing you're not bigger than the game, and that to get better you need to tap into the resources available.

Simon Taufel: It's really important to understand what you're trying to do, what the game's about, and where you want to go — and for that you need to be really clear that everything you do has a sacrifice attached to it. Time is our most precious non-renewable resource, so everything we devote our time to has to be with a sense of purpose, reason, or logic. To be a cricket umpire and aspire to spending six months on the road away from friends and family is a huge sacrifice of time — it has incredible opportunity and rewards, but there's always a downside, always a price to pay. It's about being really self-aware and comfortable with what you're prepared to sacrifice to get what you want, and then making a wholehearted commitment.

Some of us confuse commitment with dreaming or wishing — wanting a certain job, car, position, or role. Lots of people aspire to playing for India or representing their country — that could be a wish or a dream, or it could be a commitment. If it's a commitment, there's a huge amount of hard work, sacrifice, and self-discipline required to turn those wishes and dreams into reality. For me it's about commitment — being really comfortable in your skin and with the sacrifice of time and effort you're prepared to put in.

Srikanth: In your book *Finding the Gaps* you write a lot about preparation before match time.

Simon Taufel: The messages in the book are about transferable skills — not cricket umpiring skills, not cricket skills, but skills that apply to everyone in everyday life. Preparation for me is king. I've outlined six key elements: planning, knowledge, fitness and diet (nutrition), relaxation, focus, and self-development/self-evaluation. I won't walk through all six — pick up the book — but I'll touch on a couple.

Preparation is about being ready for when the opportunity comes along. Like in the military, no one gives you sergeant stripes if you haven't earned them — in umpiring, no one taps you on the shoulder and makes you an elite panel umpire; you have to earn your promotion before a selector or governing body confirms it. My message: if you're aspiring to a certain job, a promotion, or to lead a company, start positioning and preparing for that now — not when it actually happens, because by then it's too late.

On focus: going back to the plan you've written, which should be specific — not long-term goals, but short-term: what will you do every day, every week, every month that moves you toward the longer-term objective. Break it into really actionable, clear, concise doables, because unless you're doing those things every day and every week you're not moving toward the goal. Manage the distractions — the mobile phone, Facebook, social media apps that chew up time without being productive.

On self-development and self-evaluation: in cricket umpiring we self-evaluate after every match. I wonder how many people outside organised/elite sport actually sit down at the end of their day or week and ask: if I had today (or the week) over again, what would I do differently? Break it into three simple areas — what do I keep doing (what worked), what do I stop doing (what didn't work), and what do I start doing (what do I need to try differently). As an umpire I'd commit my self-evaluation to writing all the time and look for trends in my performance. Before every match I'd start with my self-assessment of the last game — what am I going to do differently, what do I need to focus on to make this match my best game so far. It's a continuous improvement cycle, and preparation sits at the top of it.

On self-development: the book talks about trying to be the best you can be, not competing with anyone else, because you don't know how far you can go as an individual. It's about developing life skills — punctuality, presentation, clear communication, manners, courtesy, doing the right things when no one is watching, because that defines and develops your own character. You are who you are 24/7. As an umpire, I don't put on the uniform on a Saturday and turn into a different personality with superhuman capabilities — Simon Taufel from Monday to Friday comes with me. Working on those people skills, knowing you are who you are all the time, is part of ongoing preparation.

On brutal honesty in self-evaluation: central to self-evaluation is brutal honesty — everyone successful at an elite level in business or sport is brutally honest with themselves, and more particularly with their teammates and teams. Unless you're honest about what worked and what hasn't, and unless you acknowledge shortcomings, you close the door to learning from mistakes. When I made mistakes on the field, I'd share my shortcomings in the post-match debrief and be honest in my self-assessment — for myself and for my coaches — taking ownership and responsibility for what's not working, whether a decision on the field, a lack of application, wrong tone with someone, or shortcuts in technique.

Simon Taufel: I've seen great team performances and very ordinary ones. I've been lucky to see sustainable success over time because of a commitment to excellence — the Australian cricket team of the early 2000s, who won 17 test matches in a row, had a real commitment to excellence: everything was about how do we get better, how do we keep challenging ourselves, how do we not give an inch even while winning. There's an attitude of never being satisfied (with an asterisk I'll get to), a continued pursuit of excellence. For sustainable success, I've seen teams with strong discipline around their values and their role in the team, following and listening to the captain, knowing their role and executing with commitment and purpose.

The Indian team around 2011 under Gary Kirsten were committed to supporting each other, putting their hand up when required, helping each other out when the chips are down. Before we recorded, Srikanth mentioned the 2011 World Cup final — I remember Virat Kohli got out for zero in the semi-final, someone was out for a low score, Dhoni scored a half-century or so — but the people who didn't perform well in the semi-final lifted themselves and stood up in the final. It's not about a team of champions, it's about a champion team — everyone taking responsibility and not waiting for someone else to do it. If they fail one day, they try harder the next; maybe it's their turn to put their hand up next game.

What corporates can learn from sports teams: everything — the preparation subject already discussed, resilience ("bounce-back ability"), how effective teams work, how to improve culture continuously, realising that success only comes from failure (every time we do something, we normally fail to some extent, and there's a continuous drive to get better), attitude (particularly humility), leadership (there's no one right style, but adaptive leadership matters), and legacy and coaching. Cricket teams practise a lot — umpires practise a lot, making mistakes off the field in non-threatening environments where it's okay to fail. Corporates need to fail and make mistakes to get better, in ways that don't have a big impact on customers or staff.

Srikanth: You were party to two great moments in Indian cricketing history — Yuvraj Singh's six sixes in South Africa, and the 2011 World Cup final where MS Dhoni hit the winning six. What defines leadership in these moments?

Simon Taufel: One leadership style Steve Waugh demonstrated was inspiring confidence and self-belief in his teammates — getting the best out of Brett Lee and Shane Warne as a bowling pair (Glenn McGrath seemed more self-driven), by putting more accountability onto them about their fields and backing them. That unqualified support gives a player the ability to go beyond their potential — "if Steve Waugh believes in me, I should believe in me." That's inspirational leadership.

The other style was leading by serving — team success over personal milestones. Mark Taylor demonstrated this: he declared on 334 not out in Pakistan, needing just one more run to beat Bradman's all-time individual scoring record, because he needed time to bowl the opposition out — the team winning mattered more than his personal milestone. Every corporate leader should make decisions in the best interests of the company, its staff, and its customers — not themselves.

On Yuvraj's six sixes and the World Cup final: leadership is about everyone accepting they have a role to play, doing their personal best to add value to the team. It's a great individual moment, but more importantly India beat England and got through in that T20 series. Had India not won that game, the six sixes probably wouldn't have meant as much. Similarly, the 2011 final was the combined efforts of a whole squad — Mahela Jayawardene made a century for Sri Lanka in that final, but it doesn't count for much because Sri Lanka didn't win. Leadership is about taking responsibility, putting your hand up, not leaving it to the next person, and contributing rather than taking something away.

Srikanth: What has been the difference-maker moment in your life and career?

Simon Taufel: I don't think there's one single moment. A few concepts: you've got to work hard, you need to be incredibly disciplined, and you need a bit of luck — being in the right place at the right time and doing your best, because you can't do more than your best. I started a bachelor of business degree straight after high school, got to the end of year one, and realised university wasn't for me — I made the tough decision to leave (not quit, a conscious choice) and took a different path. Had I not made that decision, I don't think I'd be sitting here today as a cricket umpire. You don't see these moments clearly at the time — they're only easy to look back on. My message: do what you love and love what you do. If you're doing something you don't enjoy, chances are you won't be very good at it.

Leaving university and taking a role with a printing company gave me the opportunities and freedom to explore cricket. My advice to young people: never decline an invitation or opportunity to try something new, because you don't know where it will take you. With my own kids, the challenge is to give them exposure to different things, see what they gravitate toward and love, then let them go — don't push them. Particularly in India, some parents put a huge amount of expectation on kids to perform or excel in an area that may not be their calling. We need to let our kids explore what they're passionate about and support them.

On "the standard you walk past is the standard you accept": connected to discipline — if you see behaviour that's not right and don't call it out, it becomes acceptable, the new normal. If someone's not focused on becoming better, that's fine; but if you're focused on achieving more, those small things you walk past — "bracket creep," as I call it — become a new standard. In umpiring: if a substitute walks on/off the field without telling you and you do nothing, that becomes the new standard; if batsmen call for drinks after every over and you don't say "that's enough," that becomes the new standard. It takes strength and courage to call out behaviours that aren't the right standard, without necessarily criticising the person — just bringing them back into line. You can't control other people, but you can control what you do, and that becomes your own gold standard.