By Allison Kancharla

“We are in a leadership crisis. We need braver leaders and more courageous cultures.” -Brené Brown

This year, the Unconditional Education SolRise Team (South Bay) has truly lived into our vision of Dare to Lead as we engage in Brené Brown’s work. One of our key goals has been to view our Unconditional Education (UE) partners as clients — and to intentionally engage school staff and leaders who invite us to lean into curiosity and deeper understanding. To hold ourselves accountable and take meaningful action, we introduced a new practice: choosing a Courage Partner each season that we intentionally prioritize for relationship-building.

What is a Courage Partner?

Each season, every team member quietly identifies a “Courage Partner” — a school staff or leader at one of our partner sites that we want to intentionally deepen our connection with. The partner doesn’t know; the intention lives within our Seneca team as we practice purposeful, strengths-based relationship-building.

To start, team members complete a Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness (SCARF) reflection. This is inspired by Dev Cuny’s UE Training Session Communicate to Collaborate | Relationship and Team Building, and integrates the internal working model framework. These reflections ground how we plan our approach.

During Supervisions and Seneca program team meetings, we revisit our Courage Partner work — sharing what we’re learning, what’s shifting, and how we need to adjust our action steps. This regular rhythm has helped keep the practice both intentional and relational — not just another task.

RELATED | Learn about Seneca’s UE training series

Tracking the Impact?

Small moments have led to meaningful shifts, such as:

• Team members who have struggled to connect in the past are now stopping partners in the hall for conversation.
• A partner returned a handwritten card of gratitude to a team member.
• Increased engagement in brainstorming, thought-partnering, and idea generation.
• More hellos, more conversations — especially with those who previously kept their distance.

These may seem small, but they are powerful indicators of trust building over time.

Making Adjustments

Like any meaningful practice, we’ve learned and iterated as we go. We’ve made the following adjustments:

• Seasonal cadence: We initially selected partners monthly, but quickly realized that was too fast to see real change. We now choose partners seasonally (Aug–Sep; Oct–Dec; Jan–Mar; Apr–Jun).
• Gratitude gifts: As a program, we’ve provided small “gratitude gifts” to support team members in their action plans — such as candles, note cards, and hot chocolate packets — that are simple tools to spark connection.
• Weekly newsletter tips: Each week we include a small, actionable Courage Partner tip that serves as a next step to keep the work front-of-mind.

The Work Ahead

This work is hard. The steps are small. The progress is often quiet. But with courage, intention, and a commitment to seeing people fully, we will continue to engage, deepen relationships, and Dare to Lead in every space we enter.

“Who might be your courage partner this season?”

With Courage, 
Allison Kancharla & the UE SolRise Team