Don’t Play the Reputation

Early in Tim Henman’s career, he reached the semi-final of the Grand Slam Cup, a tournament unusual enough to give each player his own locker room. He had beaten Michael Stich and Malivai Washington to get there. He was confident. The conditions were enormous for a young player: a minimum $250,000 difference in earnings, and the chance to beat Boris Becker in Germany.

They left their locker rooms and arrived in the corridor leading to the court.

Tim told me the story himself: “We walked out of the locker rooms. Boris stood several meters from me down the corridor. He just shifted from foot to foot, game face on, and waited and waited. I became unsure what to do. Wait for him? Go first? Wait him out? In these final moments before the match, I became unsettled. I realized afterward that he totally dictated the time. He sent the message that the match would be played according to his terms.”

Nothing had happened yet. No serve struck, no point played, no scoreboard. Yet the contest was already tilting.

That is Locker Room Power: the aura a competitor projects before they even arrive.

In my book, I put it in one line:

“Simply put, LRP is the myth on top of the reality.”

Read that carefully, because the order matters. First comes the reality — the work, the weapons, the results. Nobody sustains an aura built on nothing. Then the myth multiplies it. People exaggerate the depth of your weaponry. Opponents feel they have to play above themselves to compete. It cuts both ways at once: they suspect you’re invincible, and you feel immensely confident. That combination is very hard to beat.

Two moves follow from understanding this thesis.

First, stop paying the tax. Becker deliberately used his status to dictate time and see what effect it had, and in his menacing way shifted his weight and waited. Henman’s own mind did the rest. The player you face today is only as good as they are today: not their reputation, not their ranking, not the version you watched on television. When you feel an aura pressing on you, name it for what it is — a story you are telling yourself on their behalf and get back to your own game. Do something to regain control and hopefully convey a message that you are immune to their intimidation or reputation. Not easy, especially when establishing yourself, but it must be addressed.

Second, start building your own. This is where most talented people fail, in sport and in business. They produce substance and neglect the myth. The consultancy that “always wins the pitch”. The founder who “always raises”. The executive who “never loses the room”. Those reputations are not accidents — they are myths built deliberately on real capability, by people who understood that every meeting, every result, and every public word is an advertisement. Your market is a locker room. Clients talk. Competitors talk. Boards talk. The story about you is being written either way; the only question is who holds the pen.

So here is the question worth sitting with this week: what does the room say about you before you walk into it?

If you don’t know the answer, your competitors are writing it for you.

Locker Room Power is not confined to sports. In business, the same psychological dynamics unfold in boardrooms, negotiations, and even casual networking events. The way you carry yourself, the confidence you exude, and the reputation you cultivate all begin to shape outcomes before a single word is spoken. People often underestimate how much these invisible dynamics influence who gets the benefit of the doubt, who is deferred to, and who is seen as a leader.

Consider how some organizations or individuals seem to command respect effortlessly. This is rarely accidental. It’s the product of consistent performance, yes, but also of careful myth-making; seeding stories, projecting confidence, and ensuring that others expect you to deliver. This expectation becomes a force multiplier: people are more likely to trust your judgment, follow your lead, and, crucially, fear underestimating you. The myth adds weight to every interaction.

So, reflect on your own corridor moments. Are you reinforcing your own narrative, or allowing others to define it for you? Every interaction, every email, every meeting is a chance to build not just your record, but your legend. Choose your myth deliberately, and let the corridor work for you, not against you.

I coach elite athletes and executives on exactly this. If that’s relevant to you, go to the Work With Me page at the top of this publication or reply to this via email.