Hi guys, bit of a problem here. Basically all throughout school and college, I always saw myself as the 'alpha' male of our group. I've always felt like a natural born leader and struggle in social situations when i'm not the alpha member. I mean it wasn't THE most popular group in out year, but by no means were we uncool. However I have just moved to university in a new city, and still no-one has established themselves as a leader in my small class, (Around 20 people) everyone is very quiet, and it seems to be the only reason I came out of my shell at school/college was by feeding off of other peoples energy - now that there is no energy, their shyness is starting to rub off on me and i'm finding it really hard to come out my shell and establish myself as the leader I know I can be! For example, whenever the lecturer asks a question to the whole group, no-one replies! And even when they do it isn't ever me. I would normally be the kinda person to just have a stab at any question and not care if I was wrong or not, but this confidence seems to have dissapeared since I started University. It's so frustrating to suddenly lose all this confidence/social skills when just a few months ago I was the thriving alpha male of my social circle.

What are some things specifically I can do at class tomorrow to establish myself as the leader and get everyone else to come out of their shelves a bit more. I'm just getting fed up of this now.

Cheers guys!

Ask the teacher some contrived question or make a point, whilst going to the front of the room boldly then making some diagram or formula on the board while speaking loudly and clearly. After the teacher answers, then have a follow up question or point which you direct to the other students and query them about in an instructive and confident way.

This is just one example of asymmetric social behavior which if you can pull off in the right way will increase your status. If you flub it, it will lower your status but that is always the nature of these things.