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On the trail, the group sorts itself out once the pace is agreed. Before you start, set the pace of the person who walks more slowly and a point to regroup. The laughs come after, when nobody was left behind and nobody raced too far ahead.
The person who walks fastest is not the leader. They are the one who waits at the agreed point. If that is not said at the start, it gets said badly halfway, when someone is already tired and someone else is already far ahead.
Carry extra water and a clear goal. A group trek is remembered for the summit and for the conversation on the way up, not for rushing someone. If the goal is too long for the slowest person, change the goal.
Do not promise a tight time back. Groups stop to look, to eat, and to wait. That time is the trip. A bus that does not forgive turns the trail into a race, and the race is not what you came to do.
Pick points you can see: a sign, a large rock, the top of a climb. “See you up ahead” is not a point. It is how a group splits without meaning to.
At each stop, count. It sounds like a school trip and it is exactly what prevents the scare. A group of eight that arrives as seven is not on vacation until the eighth person appears.
The real laughs show up once the effort is over and nobody is resentful. That is why the pace matters more than the joke. A joke at the expense of the person at the back is remembered worse than the view.
Come down with the same care you used going up. Most of the bad moods on a group trek happen on the way back, when everyone is tired and someone wants to hurry. Return at the pace of the person who walks more calmly. You already saw the summit.