Megan Lowe is one of Flight Centre Travel Group’s quiet achievers. Having recently returned from maternity leave, Megan is especially passionate about Parentwise – an initiative to help support people through the transition of becoming a parent and returning to work.
We spoke to Megan about her experience being a leader at Flight Centre Travel Group and her involvement in Womenwise.
Womenwise was created to help promote women in leadership within our workforce. We have so many female consultants that start with our business but don’t move into senior leadership roles. With Womenwise, we wanted to create more gender balance in all leadership teams across Flight Centre Travel Group. There are many aspects where we have succeeded in creating equality and plenty more that we are still working on.
Getting women to network is a big plus in Womenwise. Ash Fallon and I set up a subset of Womenwise in the Flight Centre Marketing team, to create a forum for women within the business. It was a way of addressing any concerns around women in leadership roles, flexibility, networking and sharing some secrets of success from other women in senior leadership roles.
I love helping people develop their skills to become a better leader and recognising their potential to help them achieve their goals. I’ve done this over the past in numerous roles, and helped to turn teams and areas around for the better.
I also love collaborating with my team to create a business plan that will help drive us into the future. It’s great to see when everyone is owning and executing their part of the plan. Infinity Cruise & Rail was a big win for us when I had just returned to work as a Nation Leader and was working four days a week after my first child was born.
Another defining moment for me was two years ago when my son was born and I was on maternity leave. Returning to work after having a child can be stressful – especially when you don’t stay connected with your team while you’re on leave. With this in mind, Cherie Canning and I created Parentwise to keep parents connected and familiar with their leaders while on leave.
Every time I start a new role, I make sure to always remind myself what my strengths are and set clear expectations of myself to ensure I’m in the right mindset before I throw myself into the role.
It’s important to take control of our success and surround ourselves with inspiring women to help us achieve that. I love having inspiring women around me that I can call on to help with my personal growth and development.
The female mentors that I’ve had were honest, challenged me, gave constructive feedback and introduced me to other women and men across the business. They helped me to achieve my goals, and now I can do the same by mentoring other amazing women.
Curious to learn more about Flight Centre Travel Group's Womenwise movement? Read more about how Flight Centre is building a new generation of female leaders here.
