In every group you play a role: the planner, the clown, the peacemaker. Know yours so you can choose it on purpose.

Groups hand out roles quickly and then keep them in place, usually without anyone deciding anything. You become the organiser or the one who breaks the tension, and after a while you play it automatically, including on days when you would rather be something else entirely. The role is not the problem. Being stuck in it without noticing is.

Work out what yours is in two or three different groups. Ask whether it changes between them. Then try stepping out of it once, deliberately, and watch what the group does with the gap.