Sports Teach Us About Family Business
Newsletter: Pro golfers Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick teach us 3 lessons about inner family business dynamics
Your inner family business is the unique way your family works in and owns your company together.
On Sunday, brothers Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick won a professional golf event together in New Orleans. They became the first pair of brothers to win an event on the PGA Tour.
I watched the end of the tournament and realized the Fitzpatricks also created some palace intrigue and provided three interesting lessons for other families working together.
Palace Intrigue
When you work with family, you inevitably experience palace intrigue. While you may not feel like royalty, working with family still opens you up to extra scrutiny.
In the Fitzpatrick’s case, their win carried significant upside. One benefit was both brothers gained job security for two years. Alex needed that more than Matt, which I will explain below.
Why did this create intrigue? Well, Matt is an objectively more talented player than his brother.
Matt ranked 5th in the world. Alex was in 141st place.
In fact, of the 80 two-person teams who played in New Orleans, the gap between Matt’s top ranking and Alex’s is one of the four largest amongst all the teams.
This led to calls of nepotism, freeloading, and Alex riding on his more talented brother’s coattails. Despite the intrigue, they won (dramatically, as we’ll see below).
Here are three lessons I noticed in their teamwork and their victory:
1. They trusted each other
Let’s tackle the accusation of nepotism head-on. Despite the stats above, both brothers trusted each other; let’s look a little closer and see why.
When I work with families, we typically begin with trust amongst the family owners and family employees. Do you trust each other as owners and/or employees (or, in this case, as tournament golfers)?
That trust is two parts:
Character -> Do we approach work or ownership with the same intentions and motives?
Ability -> Do we have the skills and track record to perform in our roles (ownership or company)?
Matt and Alex shared a mutual trust as tournament golfers.
After the tournament, Alex said of Matt:
Character - “I’m incredibly appreciative of him. Everything he does for me.”
Ability - “I’m biased, but he’s the best player in the world.”
But likewise, Matt trusted Alex.
To ability, while their world rankings diverged, Alex had improved from #705 to #141 in two years, with a recent string of top finishes and a win.
Matt could see Alex’s ability and track record trending positively.
To a shared character, in a pre-round interview, both Fitzpatricks stated they could win the tournament. Where some teams were more relaxed in their approach (it’s New Orleans after all!), the Fitzpatricks approached the tournament with the same competitive intent.
When families work together, this sort of mutual trust in each other’s character and ability is foundational to relational and business success.
2. Someone else kept score
In family companies, we fight becoming too insulated, losing sight of the market and competition.
I remember a company talking about a strategic acquisition they had closed.
They bought a family company that was growing 10% per year for a relative bargain.
While many of us would envy 10% YoY growth, that family’s company was in an industry that averaged 55% per year. The acquirer realized that the family had taken their foot off the gas, and that the business had a tremendous upside if given renewed leadership focus.**
In New Orleans, Matt and Alex could not pat themselves on the back for occasional good golf shots. Everywhere they went, an objective scoreboard told them whether they were competitive.
Family companies can use a variety of independent accountability mechanisms - a board of advisors, trade association research, published KPI charts, industry rankings, etc.
These outside sources help families ask, for example:
Is 10% YoY growth industry average, underperforming or incredible?
And:
If it is underperforming, is there a good reason, like directing profits to ownership liquidity so the family can diversify their holdings?
When I work with families in their Family ACTion Meetings (dedicated meetings to increase family alignment, communication, and trust), many integrate objective perspectives on the company’s performance. We even score the health of their inner family business dynamic!
These methods help the families focus on an independent measurement versus arguing with each other about performance or drifting into a malaise.
3. Their father was a wreck!
Last, the unspoken character in this story is Matt and Alex’s father, Russell. If you have supervised the next generation, you likely understood how Russell felt.
Matt, despite being the better player, struggled for the last hour of the tournament. After the tournament, he shared how aware he was that their father, Russell, was watching the entire thing from just outside the ropes that kept spectators back.
Talking about the last hour, Matt said, “... My dad is going to be…fuming,…but also…so nervous and freaking out at the same time.”
If you have supervised the next generation, you know how Russell felt.
Is it possible for them to collaborate? Can they hold up under pressure? Are they capable of forgiving mistakes? Can they figure out how to be themselves, but win together? If it goes poorly, will they talk? If they win, will they praise each other, or try to take the glory?
On the tournament’s last hole, Matt gripped his club and pulled off an incredibly difficult golf shot. That shot sealed the victory for the brothers. Matt had held his brother’s career security in his hands with their father watching.
When you work in and own companies with family, you understand the layers of pressure that the Fitzpatricks felt. Sibling history. Parental approval. Money. The conditional, objective nature of sports competition mixed with the unconditional nature of family. Tension.
And here is what great family companies know: you can prepare for and navigate these moments.
Practice and Wrapping Up
Family ACTion Meetings are where you build Alignment, Communication, and Trust - like how the Fitzpatricks played practice rounds with each other before the tournament.
There, you build family trust, learn to watch an external score, and normalize the pressure of your family watching before the moment requires it of you.
As you schedule your next family meeting, I hope the Fitzpatricks’ story gives a few ideas to you.
As my grandfather would have said, thank you so very, very much for reading.
Adam, for 21 Clear
** - Unless I name a real company, any story is based on real family companies, with names, industries, and other details changed to protect the families’ privacy. Many times, a story is a synthesis of two or more similar stories. Any resemblance to an actual family or company is strictly coincidental.