The type of person who consistently pulls off these sorts of tasks, is someone I call "the firefighter". Every good organization has one, the person you call when all hope is nearly lost. The one who always manages to salvage the failing project, to fix that bug before the demo, etc.

The article is a great "how to" on becoming "the firefighter" in any situation. In my experience the big one that people miss is "take an active part". So many people when they hit the wall don't put themselves into the middle of the problem, and just hope that everyone else will follow through in time.

Great article!