Chipotle's COO uses team dinners to spot potential leaders. These are the 4 qualities he looks for.
Chipotle COO Jason Kidd uses informal team dinners during store visits to identify leadership potential and assess employee culture. He prioritizes four specific traits, including collaboration and problem-solving, when selecting candidates for internal promotion.
Why it matters
The strategy highlights how large corporations are shifting toward internal talent development and culture-fit assessments to manage rapid expansion.
Jason Kidd is the chief operating officer at Chipotle. Chipotle Jason Kidd typically visits a dozen Chipotle locations every week, and is always looking for talent. All of Chipotle's regional vice president promotions last year were internal, the COO said. He said he looks for 4 leadership traits, including problem-solving skills, when considering promotions. Chipotle chief operating officer Jason Kidd visits roughly a dozen Chipotle stores every week — and said he's always on the hunt for talent. At the end of each day, Kidd told Business Insider he sits down for a roughly 90-minute dinner with three or four members of the regional team in the market he's visiting. He said these meals help strengthen day-to-day operations and offer him a chance to get to know employees. It also gives him an opportunity to scan for internal promotions.
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