Shelly Thake is Chief Executive of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), the charity for Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Prior to this she worked at Logica for 17 years, reaching the position of Group HR Director.

People think communication is just what you tell people. But it’s also how you listen to people. And I think that that’s what’s really important. When I came into ACT, the staff at the hospital were not all well-disposed to the charity, because they felt that all the charity did was say no to them. So, my first task was to come in and start listening to people. If I had to say no, then to explain to people why it was no. I’m really pleased that now our relationship with the hospital is significantly more positive and collaborative. They see what we’re capable of when we work together, and we’ve been able to demonstrate that ACT can really deliver when the hospital needs us — whether that’s supporting them through a global pandemic or helping them realise the vision for two new ground-breaking hospitals.

If you say you’re going to do something, do it. If I’ve promised to do something, it will either get done or I will explain why I’ve done something differently. And that’s what matters. You do what you say you’re going to do, and you do it well.

I’ve never had to change who I am as a person. There are so many different external influences around today that distract people that we don’t listen hard enough to ourselves. We worry about what that will look like, or is it going to look great on Instagram, rather than listening to the core of who we are. Your moral compass really is an important leadership tool.

Embrace change when you’re scared of change. It’s probably a good indicator that it’s time to change if it makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable. I could have left Logica a bit sooner — I probably had become co-dependent on the job. When I finally left, I woke up the next day and realised that the world hadn’t fallen apart.

We have a duty to take ethical fundraising very seriously. When I review one of our appeals, my conscience asks me every time, is it the right thing for us to do, are our messages clear? Every appeal, including ours, plays on people’s emotions. We have to make the right decisions and do the right thing by our supporters and our donors, by our staff and by our beneficiaries.

The more integrity you have in your fundraising, the better your results are going to be. What’s important is building long term support and relationships that are sustainable. I could think of a hundred ways that we could go out and raise lots of money in the short term, but having supporters that care about what you are doing, the impact their support is having and stewarding them well, means you will achieve greater things together, for longer.

I’m never scared of rolling my sleeves up. I’ve always had the mantra that if I expect someone to do some work for me, I should also be able or willing to do it myself. In my career, I’ve had to do tasks that disappoint people with the decisions that the business has had to make, like redundancy programmes, take-overs. But at the end of the day, if I’ve done that with integrity and I’ve done it well, then I can sleep at night.

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Cause & Effect is a series from Hope, a charity branding agency, in which leading figures who have been involved in building and promoting good causes tell us what they’ve learned from their experiences. Interview by Michael Isaacs.