Making the jump from individual contributor to manager can be difficult. Other promotions can be based on seniority, experience, education, etc. Who gets selected to be a manager is much more subjective so keep this in mind.
There is an easy, fullproof way to get a manager position, provided you aren't a complete idiot and haven't burned any bridges. It works every single time. Work for a company in which the employees are so unhappy that they leave left or right. Then if you stick around, you automatically become a manager, unless they REALLY don't like you, at which point you should then leave.
Being manager doesn't mean that you are necessarily the most qualified. It means sometimes being in the right place at the right time.
The only couple of times i stepped into management were primarily when if I didn't I'd be working for someone less competent AND who I felt wouldn't give me the recognition that I would deserve, or when they other candidate would have created issues with the team to rip the team apart. Frankly, it wasn't particularly what I wanted to do, as I had to deal with all sorts of things like conflict, expectation management, budgets, which frankly took up more time that what I enjoy doing. I also don't mind working for someone who isn't as technically capable as me, as long as that person doesn't try to put one over me.
Then there were times when I was passed up for an management position and some imbecile was placed above me that would have made my life hell and would have stolen all recognition that I would have deserved… In those situations, I simply stepped aside and let them run the project…inevitability into the ground. Meanwhile, I worked on something else, usually something that was an exact duplication of what that person was trying to do, and usually did cleanup operations after he/she ran a project into the ground. Sounds mean? Well, I don't backstab people, but I definitely don't let people backstab me either. Sometimes, you can't really step aside at a startup, at which point it's plan B (you find another position, but you leave on a a good note, so that if things fail, they might call you back to help fix whatever thing was run into the ground).
