E-4 in charge, but not in a "leadership position"

So when I was coming up (granted I haven't gotten far, but if you see my DOR, you can see I've been around a while), when an NCO put someone senior to me in charge, it usually came with some kind of warning (spoken or implied), that s/he had the authority of that NCO; not to mention that I was taught, as long as it's not illegal, do what you're told by your NCO, without asking questions.

So, I have to ask, as someone who often finds him/herself in the position of being "in charge" without being the "first-line" supervisor (even though I am senior under our "first-line"), how do you deal with all of the questions when you give instructions to your subordinates, or when you try to teach them something and they seem to have better things to do than pay attention to you?