There's The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, The Six Thinking Hats, and now a new spin on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  In a recent post on his blog, John W. Powell lays out "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Developers."  Looking over them though, they apply to just about all tech centric jobs. Here they are:

Passionate

As we've said here before, being passionate about your work is the thing that often separates the good from the great.

Able to Learn, Unlearn, and Re-learn

This industry changes fast.  If you can't keep pace, it will chew you up and spit you out.

Balance Principle and Practice

Effective developers don't design impractical solutions for the sake of principle and don't implement solutions without overarching values. 

In other words: In all levels of the tech industry, you have to wise enough to know when to compromise, and when not to.

Keep It Simple Software (KISS)

The KISS concept has been around a long time for a reason. Don't reinvent the wheel just for the sake of it.

If You Don't Know the Answer, Know Someone Who Does

As tech pros, we can't possibly know everything (see habit 2), but we'd better be able to find the solutions when the heat's on.  A good network of knowledgeable friends, Google, and sites like Stack Overflow and Server Fault is a wide safety net that will keep you from getting behind the eight ball.

Focus on Value

Effective developers understand the forces driving the project, its stakeholders and their goals.  Using this knowledge to guide their decision making, they focus on delivering tangible value to their customers over anything else. 

This is just good advice for everyone in tech.  Deliver value to your customers, whoever they may be;  front office staff or thousands of web users.

Puts the Needs of the Many Before the Needs of the One

Yep, it's not about you, so be a team player, and always think about what's best for your customers, clients, or users.

 -- Chad Broadus