| "promotion is more about consistent level N+1 behavior, while one could get a high performance rating by solving many level N problems." Not all companies are like this, and I find it common that new employees are not sufficiently taught what their company is like : A) you have been performing well as N,promotion means "we feel / hope you're ready to work as N+1 in the future " B) you've done great as N and have repeatedly performed N+1 tasks successfully. Promotion means "we recognize what you've already been doing " First one is "proactive" and represents faith you'll do well at next band. In principle all you have to do is do your job well. There is risk though that you man not succeed after promotion if next band has radically different role or skillset. Second one ensures you're prepared for your new band, but you cannot there just by doing your job well, and many people are unaware or don't have opportunity to do tasks of next band in their current role |
The duties of level N and N+1 are often a little different. If they're different enough, then it can be difficult to demonstrate N+1 while also doing N work. You're option is to work two jobs at once or, as I more commonly see, do the bare minimum of N work and focusing on N+1 work. This can look like the teammate who's focusing on division-wide initiatives at the expense of implementing the things their team is actually assigned - leaving their teammates to pick up the slack.
This is certainly not inevitable, and I'm definitely not saying B is a bad way to do things - just that this is a failure case I've seen of that model. The other, of course, is "why spend a year doing N+1 work here at an N salary when it's easier to just get hired as an N+1 at a new company today?"