As a long-time educator in his community, Yonason Goldson strives to live out the things he promotes through his speaking and teaching, which are mainly ethics and integrity. With his influence, he hopes to also educate businesses on how to ethically communicate and operate with his One Big Tip.
From Hitchhiker to Rabbi
Yonason’s journey to his current position is a fascinating one. He has always had a fondness for storytelling and graduated from the University of California with a degree in English. However, he decided to set off hitchhiking across the country when he realized that he “didn't really have any stories or great messages to share.”
During his travels, he found himself in Israel and started learning about his heritage. He ended up starting a family and living there for nine years as he became a Jewish scholar and rabbi.
However, he was drawn to do more to have a positive impact and influence on others, so he started teaching the fundamentals of faith to Jewish teens. More importantly, he taught them “how to incorporate that into their lives to be more spiritually, morally, psychologically healthy adults.”
After his school closed, he remained passionate about educating others on how to enrich their lives and began speaking professionally about ethics and how to live a life “that contributes positively to society and to our own personal and professional success.”
How to Have Ethical Communication
Through sharing his messages, Yonason hopes to promote diversity and intellectual integrity through the ethical communication of businesses. His One Big Tip for accomplishing this is to be genuine in both words and actions as well as to effectively share and promote the company purpose. Yonason defines ethics as “a discipline and a mindset, an attitude of committing ourselves to what we ought to do.” What makes communication ethical is communicating our ideas and message clearly and by modeling it in everything we do. Yonason emphasizes that this is not a part-time thing, and that integrity and authenticity must be part of your whole being and pervade every aspect of your life as you keep moving towards perfection.
When it comes to business, this integrity must be shown through the company culture and the communication of company goals. He comments that “employees want to work in a place where they feel they're making a contribution to something important.” Therefore, it’s crucial to express and encourage the mission of the company.
However, before you look to communicate this purpose to your employees, you must first be able to articulate it. He calls this finding your “why”, which is the answer to why you do what you do. For many, accurately identifying this “why” will take time and be a process that is always being changed or fine-tuned.
Finally, through authenticity and communication, Yonason hopes that ethics will become a priority for businesses moving forward, as Yonason states that “the biggest mistake leaders can make is believing they have to choose between being good and being successful.”
You can learn more about Rabbi Yonason Goldson and his work on his website www.yonasongoldson.com and you are welcome to find him on LinkedIn under Rabbi Goldson to exchange ideas and engage with him.
