All my tricks seem to be non technical ones
1: Commit to the idea that you might be wrong, and when you are fall on your sword because the 3 most important words in IT are "I don't know".
2: Sometimes the problem really is layer one, don't over complicate stuff. Just ask a CCIE that did the lab and found a fiber that had been pulled out only 1-2mm.
3: Don't bring a problem to upper management until you are ready to also bring a solution, or solutions.
4: Don't panic! High impact problems happen and you will make it worse if you freak out.
5: Oh and one technical one, if you are in a Cisco environment storm-control on your access ports is your true blue friend. Inversely, desktop switches are absolutely not your friend, they are the evil little bastards the helpdesk guys like to buy that end up generating calls over the weekend to your on call phone.
