I find that most engineers overestimate the portion of their job that can be satisfied by technical skill alone. Dale Carnegie states in the preface of "How to win Friends and Influence People" that even in fields as technical as engineering only 15% of job success is purely technical.

If you have a truly good idea--one you think should go up the management chain--how much are you willing to handcuff yourself by your job description? Fwiw, I've always interpreted the vague "technical leadership" parts of senior eng job descriptions to encompass exactly this. Leading people is a lot more than just telling them where to go.