What does it mean to exceed expectations?

Question

I was told that exceeding expectations doesn't necessarily mean that you're operating at the next level, so I would like to get more clarity here. What does it mean to exceed expectations in a way that's building up towards promotions vs. not?

Accepted Answer

The key idea here is that there's a difference between output and behavior. For example, it's possible to do 5 tasks instead of 4 and therefore "exceed expectations", but it may not be worthy of promotion since your maturity level as an engineer hasn't actually changed.

What does it mean to exceed expectations?

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