Revealing the Secret to a Salary Increase!? Should You Raise or Lower Your Company's Expectations of You?

Hello, this is Machiya Fukasawa.

I provide information as a strategy advisor for employees who want to "increase their salary exactly as planned."

For employees who feel frustrated because "I'm working hard but my salary isn't going up,"
or "I want to raise my salary, but I don't know what to work on or how to do it,"

I share strategies and concrete methods to help you increase your salary exactly as you intend.

What I want to talk about today is
the reason why raising your company's expectations of you is the shortest path to a salary increase
.

The other day, a young employee from another team came to me with this concern.

I have felt the same way in the past.

When expectations rise,

it also means the difficulty of the work increases.
Furthermore, it means the level of disappointment if you fail will also be greater.

So, aren't many people subconsciously thinking, "I'd rather not raise expectations if I can help it"?

However, I want to tell you this time that this feeling is actually a "wasteful misunderstanding."

The reason for this is that there is only one thing truly necessary to increase your salary,

and that is to raise your company's expectations of you

It is simply because of this.

You might think, "Is it really that simple?"

However, I have seen many people who, without realizing this simple rule (just as I once did), continue to simply avoid having expectations of them raised.

Do many people misunderstand what it means to "have expectations raised"?

For example, since our student days, we have accumulated experiences where "the difficulty of studying increases" meant "it's tough and hard."

Also, I think many people have had the experience of "not being able to meet someone's expectations and feeling down because they were disappointed."

In that sense, it is a natural reaction to intuitively perceive "the company's expectations of me rising" as "my burden increasing."

However, if you know someone close to you who got a raise, I would like you to recall whether the "company's expectations of them" had also risen before their salary went up.

For instance, they might have been selected as a project leader, assigned to a difficult client, or entrusted with tasks involving more responsibility than ever before...

In this way, the timing of salary increases and promotions is always "when expectations have risen" or "after expectations have risen."

Conversely, the salary of someone who continues to work with the same level of expectations for years rarely increases significantly.
(Excluding companies with seniority-based pay systems.)

In other words, a state where expectations do not rise is actually the biggest risk.

People who avoid having expectations raised for fear of increased burdens are, at the same time, letting go of the very opportunity for their salary to increase.

In reality, an "increase in expectations" is an "investment decision" made by the company.

I have worked for 20 years at two major companies: a leading human resources firm and a large-scale IT venture.

I can share insights from the perspective of someone who has not only increased their own salary as a player but has also stood in appraisal meetings as a manager to determine the evaluations of team members.

When a company raises its expectations for someone, there is always a judgment behind it.

In fact, an "increase in expectations" is the result of an "investment decision" the company has made regarding that person.

This is because a company sets some kind of role for each and every employee.

For that role, an expectation level of "we want you to do at least this much work" is set.

And, as compensation for doing work that meets those expectations, they set a "salary amount."

In other words, when a company "pays you a salary," it means they are "investing an amount equal to your salary" in "your expectations."

Therefore,

is something that can be said.

Conversely, if the company does not intend to increase its investment in you, your expected value will not rise in the first place.

In fact, when discussing someone's performance evaluation or salary increase in an assessment meeting, the words exchanged there are

not just about "how much results this person has produced."

It is not just that.

How much of a role can we entrust to this person from next term onwards?

This discussion about future expectations is always included as a set.

While it may seem that evaluations are determined solely by current results, in reality, "how much can we expect from you next" becomes the basis for judging salary increases (and where to allocate the source of funds).

That is precisely why an increase in expectations can be interpreted as an indirect sign that "we are preparing to raise your salary."

It becomes easier to understand when thinking from an investor's perspective

This structure is similar to the relationship between investors and startups.

Investors invest more capital into companies that are likely to grow from here on out.

Conversely, they do not provide additional funding to companies they judge to have no further growth potential.

This is because investors make investment decisions with the goal ofmaximizing returns.

The relationship between an employee and a company is actually the same as this.

A company is constantly deciding how to allocate its limited resources (the budget for all employees' salaries) to you as a piece of 'human capital'.

The basis for that decision is your past achievements and the expectations for your future.

When expectations rise, it can be rephrased as the moment the company, acting as an investor, decides:

'If I invest in this person, I'm likely to get a greater return, so I should invest more.'

That is the moment they make that judgment.

For example, when I was a manager, I once assigned a member a project one level higher than usual.

The person seemed anxious, saying, 'This is too much for me,' but I had a clear reason for doing so.

Looking at their achievements up to that point, I had decided:

'I can entrust this person with a larger role next time.'
'I want to reward them properly in the next performance review for what they've taken on.'

That is why I made that decision.

In fact, at the performance review meeting for that period, that member received the evaluation I had anticipated and achieved a significant salary increase.

The moment expectations rose, the person braced themselves, but from the manager's perspective, it was 'laying the groundwork for a future salary increase'.

Things to check when expectations of you rise

However, not every moment when expectations rise leads directly to a salary increase.
If you confuse these, you will end up just carrying the pressure alone.

There are two points you should check when you feel that expectations of you have risen.

The first is
whether that rise in expectations is due to a 'temporary busy period' or a 'change in your role'..

If it is simply that busy periods are overlapping, that cannot be called a rise in expectations.
You need to determine whether the quality or scope of the work you are entrusted with has actually changed.

The second is
whether you have been able to verbalize those expectations with your boss and those around you.
.

Even if you feel that expectations are rising, if it is not explicitly stated in your goal-setting sheet or in conversations with your boss, it will be difficult to have it treated as 'results that met expectations' during an appraisal meeting.

It is not just about accepting the rise in expectations as a feeling, but whether you have been able to put it into words and share it.

This is the crossroads that determines whether or not it leads to a salary increase.

Specifically, try asking yourself the following questions.

If you cannot answer these three questions, there is a possibility that even though expectations have risen, it is not in a form that leads to an evaluation.

This means you are missing out on a sign of an investment decision due to a lack of verbalization, so I would like you to align with your supervisor as soon as possible.

However, 'raising expectations too high' is a different story.

There is one important point I would like to convey here.

In a previous article, I talked about how 'raising expectations of yourself too high can become a trap that lowers your evaluation'.

The point is that if you set expectations for yourself at a level you cannot achieve during the goal-setting phase, you will only be left with the result of failure, which will actually lower your evaluation.

This might seem to contradict what I mentioned previously about how "an increase in expectations should be welcomed."

However, these two things do not contradict each other.

The previous point was a cautionary note regarding goal setting, which is not to set the bar for your goals unnecessarily high yourself.

This current point is about how you perceive things, specifically that an increase in expectations from the company itself is not something to be avoided.

In other words, while you should welcome the expansion of roles and expectations entrusted to you by the company, you should strategically design the achievement criteria when incorporating them into your goal-setting sheet.

Balancing these two things is the realistic way to proceed to get the salary increase you are aiming for.

Conclusion: It is fine to let the company's expectations of you rise.

Do you view rising expectations as a burden, or as a gateway to a salary increase?

This difference changes how you approach your daily work.

Those who view it as a burden will unconsciously avoid work that might raise expectations.

On the other hand, those who view it as a gateway to a salary increase will actively take on opportunities that raise expectations and clearly articulate those expectations in conversations with their supervisors.

Even if you experience the same rise in expectations, the difference in how you approach them will manifest as a difference in your salary a few years later.

I myself was the former in my 20s.

There was a time when I feared expectations rising and acted in a way to avoid standing out.
There were also times when I would subtly find reasons to avoid new tasks when they were about to be assigned to me.

My way of thinking changed because of something a senior colleague said to me at the time:

"When expectations rise, it just means you're ready to be evaluated. The only thing left is whether or not you put that into words."

That was the catalyst.

Since then, every time the scope of work assigned to me expanded, I reframed it not as a burden, but as "more material for a salary increase."

As a result, my annual income has roughly tripled between my late 20s and early 40s.

It is perfectly fine to let expectations rise.

In fact, it is something you should intentionally aim to raise.

Now that you have read this article, you no longer need to brace yourself when the level of work you are assigned increases.

Simply reframing it as "this is where the real salary increase begins" will change your subsequent actions.

In closing

Thank you for reading this far!

Please change your perspective from 'higher expectations equals more stress' to 'higher expectations means you are ready for a salary increase'.

Just by doing that, I believe the things you perceive as opportunities in your daily work will change significantly.

That said, some of you may be wondering about more practical aspects, such as 'how exactly can I find out what my expectations are?' or 'how can I intentionally raise those expectations?'

Regarding those specific methods, I explain them step-by-step in my paid article, covering everything from goal setting to reflection.

If you are interested, I hope you will take a look at that as well.

With that said, I will continue to share in this note the 'methods for getting a salary increase exactly as you planned' that I have practiced as a player and proven to be reproducible as a manager.

I hope that through this note, as many people as possible will be able to achieve 'high evaluations' and 'salary increases'.

Thank you for your continued support!