I think it’s a good idea to listen to Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People regularly. It’s full of wisdom that we all know intuitively, but that we often forget during all of our day to day difficulties. A great many of the principles in that book can be boiled down to just one thing: During your dealings with other people, think about the situation from their perspective.
That advice may sound pretty high-level and difficult to apply, but in fact it is an actionable basis for pretty much any kind of decision-making. If you’re being interviewed for a position, think about what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you. If you’re playing chess, think about what your opponent is trying to do rather than just hoping that what you’re doing will work. Any activity that involves other people will be improved by looking at things from their point of view.
You can probably guess how this applies to development, but you may not immediately think of all the facets. Obviously the first point of relevance is in gathering requirements and working with stakeholders. When you’re working on a project, you should always be conscious of the overall goal and how your components relate to that goal. The big picture can help keep you from making a mistake that might seem reasonable in isolation. Also think about perspective in terms of other members of your team. Are you taking an approach that will empower your teammates, or are you doing what’s easiest for you at their expense?
If you start making your decisions from the point of view of the people you’re working with, rather than your own, you will find improvement in nearly everything you do.