John Stanko

"When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, 'You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?'" - Galatians 2:14.

Paul confronted Cephas [Peter] because he was living among Gentiles like a Gentile until other Jews arrived. Then Cephas withdrew from the Gentiles so he would not offend his Jewish friends, acting like there should be a separation between Jew and Gentile. Paul was angered by this hypocrisy and confronted Peter in front of others. There are two examples of emotional intelligence at work in this story, one for good and one not-so-good. The not-so-good is Peter, whose fear of criticism from the Jews caused him to act in a way inconsistent with the mission to the Gentile world, ignoring how his snub would impact the Gentiles. The other was Paul, who directed his anger over the situation into a loving confrontation to try and turn Peter from his hypocrisy while warning others against imitating the error of Peter's ways.

LEADERSHIP STEP: Your Step today is to emulate the way Paul handled Peter's misstep. Here's how: 1) Determine if there is anyone's behavior inconsistent with the values and mission of the organization you lead or serve; 2) Recognize your own feelings toward their attitude or behavior; 3) Speak up, either in a one-to-one session or in a team setting. Caution: you can only do the latter if the team leadership is secure enough to handle this type of encounter.