Most programmers simply do the tasks assigned to them, because most programmers don't know how to sell!

If you can sell, then you get to decide what you should be working on, convince your manager (and team leads, and other managers, and business teams, and anyone else who might be a stakeholder or shot caller) that it is in their best interest to have you work on the thing you have recommended. Note that this can't be BS... what you're recommending has to be an actual win for them. So, when you've completed the task you sold them on, they see you as a visionary and successful technical leader. The trust that creates will allow you to pick bigger, more ambitious things to work on.

Of course, this assumes that you want to take control over your own work. If you're content just doing what you're told to do, then keep on doing that.