What does a good employee look like?

If I were hiring someone, and didn't have a thousand laws or requirements governing the hire, what would I really look for in an employee? What qualities should he/she have?

Able to do the job, or be trained for the position
Flexible
Honest
Highly motivated
Hard working
Good communicator
Good sense of humor
Prompt
Reliable
Efficient
Reasonable
Dresses appropriately
Gets along well with others
Able to follow instructions
Able to balance home and work obligations appropriately

Depending on the position, there would be other qualities, such as:

Skilled leader
Able/willing to follow a skilled leader
Skilled in conflict resolution
Creative thinker
Able to work independently
Reasonably humble

Some people-types I would not want:

Whiners & complainers
Gossips
Lazy people (Unless a touch of laziness drives them to be more efficient!)
People who only see their job as a source of income, but don't love/believe in what they are doing
Dishonest people
Arrogant people
People who illegitimately skip work
Know-it-alls (who don't)

How do you find employees like this?  Probably more through word-of-mouth than through any application process.

Some of the qualities listed would even be illegal to ask about in an interview. For example, "Able to balance home and work obligations appropriately." I think this is an important quality, albeit one is not allowed to delve into a potential employee's personal home life.

When an employee has a horrible home life, work is affected. Likewise if the employee doesn't wisely balance their workload, their home-life suffers, and may even cause a divorce, which then affects their ability to focus on work.

Obviously the employer has an obligation to the employee not to cause family break-downs due to ridiculous amounts of overtime, poor compensation etc. Likewise the employee has an obligation to not be taking off work constantly to resolve family issues that should be taken care of during off hours, and to give a strong focus during work hours, on the work to be accomplished.