As a Junior Officer, I feel it is important to remind myself and other JO that the NCOs we are working with are very knowledgeable. They have probably carried out many different plans for the same mission, or helped conceive a decent plan to save a fresh LT from demise. To answer part 1 of your question, I think you nailed it on the head saying trust is the number one block to build off. Without trust, it is impossible to effectively work together between Officer and NCO. Without trust, it is near impossible to effectively communicate and inspire your troops. It is much easier to influence Soldiers when they trust that you have their back as their leader should.

I also think that it is very important to always try and learn from each and every NCO you work with. To think a Junior LT could come in and directly and immediately influence how his/her PLT runs is crazy.  The soldiers know who the NCO is as a person and have developed that trust as mentioned before. But they don’t know who their new PL is and what they’ve done to earn their commission. So to keep learning from the NCO is imperative.

To go along with learning, the new LT always needs to know where they stand with their NCO and vice versa. To say the relationship is always superior-subordinate, or always peer-peer, would be wrong. I think there is a time and place from everything. With time comes the knowledge to know when to put the foot down and stop NCO business, and there is a time to trust NCOs to build cohesive teams and develop the Junior enlisted.  It’s almost impossible to be friends with the NCO while still having a professional relationship with someone, but it’s not impossible to get to know someone on a personal level and still be professional with them.

All in all, it is important to know that the NCOs around a Junior Officer are a very valuable resource with many years of experience to pull from and learn from.