The company I work has a lot of very eager and smart people who put 40h a week and have families. They are experts in their field of work (Image processing).
I would say I have been climbing the ladder because I have good soft-skills and strong leadership skills. It happened naturally and was not part of an evil plan or something I tried too hard.
I am OK with not being a programming wizard or using all the latest tech in every project. I am very good in getting people to work together productively and having them delivering projects constantly.
I have gone from Senior to Lead in the past two companies I've been at within 6 months and now am now growing a department.