Most of the decisions that affect your career happen when you're not in the room.

Things like:

Getting raises and promotions.

Increasing the budget for your department.

Deciding whether your proposal gets accepted over a competitor.

Deciding if your product gets into a national retailer.

Who keeps their job and who doesn't.

Which speaker gets invited to a conference.

All of this happens when you're not in the room.

You know what is in the room? The perception of you. It's either working for you or against you.