People hear about you in the hallway before they meet you at the table. Give the hallway something decent to say.

Your reputation arrives in rooms before you do, and it got assembled out of small moments you have forgotten: how you spoke to someone, whether you followed through, what you were like when it was inconvenient. You cannot manage it directly, because it is other people’s summary of you. All you can do is keep giving it accurate material.

Assume every ordinary interaction this week is on the record, since in a sense it is. Be the same person to whoever can do nothing for you. That consistency is the only thing that reliably produces a decent hallway version.