Chipotle’s COO Uses This Test to Find People to Promote. Here Are the 4 Attributes He Seeks.

When hiring, promoting or investing in employees, company leaders look for everything from how polite they are to the receptionist to “side quests” or self-driven hobbies. They also look at the state of someone’s sneakers, how well they interact with the taxi driver and how they react to a waiter getting their breakfast order wrong. 

While other C-suite executives have their own ways to spot high-level talent, Chipotle’s chief operating officer, Jason Kidd, identifies his next crop of leaders by having a meal with them. 

Kidd recently told Business Insider that he pops into about a dozen Chipotle stores every week. At the end of the day, he has a 90-minute dinner with three or four members of the location’s regional team. 

The dinner serves three purposes: It helps solidify day-to-day operations, it gives him insight into how employees think and it presents an opportunity to look for promising new talent deserving of an internal promotion. 

“We’re constantly identifying internal talent during these visits, seeing how people show up and see how they react,” Kidd, who joined Chipotle last year after working as COO of Taco Bell, said. Chipotle promoted 23,000 employees last year, and all of the company’s regional vice presidents were internal hires, according to Kidd. Further, 85% of general managers and 83% of field leaders were internal promotions last year. 

The food giant had over 4,000 global locations and 130,000 employees as of March. It plans to open 370 new locations this year. 

The four traits Kidd looks for when considering a promotion

The dinners are an opportunity for Kidd to “get to know people in a different way,” he said. He is looking for more information about what people want to do and if they are interested in a promotion. 

He looks for four key traits. The first is someone who takes care of workers and works well on a team. “At the end of the day, we run a people business,” Kidd said. “So you need to make sure you take care of your people.”

The second trait he focuses on is owning the outcome. When he asks someone for an honest assessment of a situation, he looks to see if they take responsibility for the outcome, whether good or bad. “They know how to deliver results,” Kidd said. “If somebody can own the outcome of what they’re doing, they’re likely going to be a good leader.”

The third factor is predicting problems before they happen and preparing for them. “We don’t need firefighters; we need people who could be ahead of the issues and anticipate what’s going on,” he said.

Finally, Kidd looks for exceptional problem-solving skills. A lot can go wrong in the restaurant industry, but it takes a special kind of person to identify solutions, not just flag issues. 

Kidd’s focus on promotions is at odds with the overall rate. According to a 2025 study from payroll and HR platform Gusto, promotions that entail a higher title and a raise of at least 5% hit a five-year low last year, falling to about 10%.