To me the trick is to play out of chords. I used to be amazed (and still am) at people who can drop out of a chordal back-up and go into complicated single string leads. I've found you can construct a good lead while playing full or partial chords. All the notes are there, and if you miss a specific string, you'll hit one that harmonizes -- and it may even sound better than the melody! Also, if you work out where all the inversions are, up the neck, you can move around from bass to treble voicings and really play the whole fingerboard.

And the good thing is, you keep track of where you are by where you are in the chord structure, making your timing more solid.