As a contractor, you must be professional.

Definitely. Know your stuff, show up on time, do quality work and get along with everyone else on the project.

You must be the client's idea of professional. This may or may not be the same as your own.

Well .. maybe. You have to get along with the people on the project. I would prefer to remain my own person, however.

No matter how bad something is, don't suggest changing it until you've worked with the company for at least a month...maybe more like two, especially if you work remotely.

You don't have to overtly tell the client that they're wasting resources doing it the wtrong way .. but you can educate them about alternatives that you know about that could offer them improvements.

Don't press to begin with .. if you have time to give them a very short demo, do that. If you're a consultant, one of the things that they're hiring you for is your expertise, your knowledge of the industry. If you can save them time and/or money, it's practically your duty to tell them about it.

If they choose not to take you up on your suggestion, that's their privilege .. and they may know thigns about the company which may not permit your suggestion.

You need to make the client comfortable. That means operating at whatever level of formality they use; less than that makes you look sloppy, more than that makes you look like a stuffed shirt.

Well .. maybe. This is like the second point -- you do have to get along with them.

If your people skills are so good that you can criticize someone for 40 minutes and, at the end of that time, they are chuckling ruefully and saying "thanks for telling me"...you have one necessary-but-insufficient attribute of an exceptional President/CEO.

Absolutely. That person deserves to be earning respect and big bucks.

Great post. Very interesting stuff. I love to hear stories from 'the front'.