"Own the Outcome" - How Chipotle Promoted 23,000 Workers in One Year

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:00)
Chipotle's CEO uses team dinners to spot potential leaders, and there are four qualities he looks for. Actually like this, there's four qualities he looks for. Okay, so Chipotle's CEO, Jason Kidd, no relation to the other Jason Kidd. Basketball player. Visits about a dozen stores each week, ending his days with roughly 90 minute dinners, attended by 304 of his regional employees. The meal helps strengthen operations, reveals employees' careers, ambitions, and identifies candidates for internal promotion. We're constantly identifying internal talent during these visits, seeing how people show up, and seeing how they react. Chipotle promoted 23,000 workers last year, including all of its new regional vice presidents. As of March, the chain employed more than 135,000 people across 4,100 locations, and plan to open as many as 370 new restaurants this year. The kid who joined Chipotle last year after serving as Taco Bell COO looks for four qualities and potential leaders. First, they care for colleagues and collaborate effectively. At the end of the day, we run a people business, so you need to make sure you take care of your own people. Collaborations and a relationship building become increasingly important as employees move into senior role. Number two, strong candidates who own the outcome.
They take responsibility for results, whether positive or negative, and assess their performance honestly. If somebody can own the outcome of what they're doing, they're likely going to be a good leader. Number three, they anticipate problems. This is like our language. I'm loving what he's saying here. They anticipate problems instead of merely reacting. We don't need firefighters. We need people who could be ahead of the issues and anticipate what's going on. And last but not least, they solve problems rather than simply identifying them. Restaurant operations inevitably produce difficulties, and effective leaders arrive with solutions instead of raising concerns. By the way, this one you think about, so if you really, one of them is what? Collab-collaborate effectively. They own the outcome. They anticipate problems instead of just reporting it. And last but not least, they solve problems instead of just identifying it. So for the last 20-some years, one of the things I used to do when we first started our insurance company is, and I told you this story, I think maybe I told you this last week, every Tuesday night, I would cook for my guys.
So we would finish our sales meeting at the office, and Tuesday night, when it's over with, people would come to my house, and I would ask people to bring their wives or bring their family. So we had this place, and I'm making my famous chicken barbecue that I do, which is legendary. You age backwards. A lot of people say when you eat, you age backwards.
And you actually get younger. When I used to make this barbecue in my apartment 25 years ago, everybody in the community would show up because they could smell it. Can I get a piece? I would say, here, take a piece. It was just phenomenal. But anyways, I'm cooking.
And you know what it is when I'm cooking? I'm talking to people. So, hey, tell me how long you guys have been together. Oh, wow, okay. So what do you do right now? What do you think about this insurance thing he's trying to do? I don't really think it's gonna work. Do you think it really works? What's your concern about working and not working?
What are your dreams? And so what we'd like to one day, how long you guys have been married? 12 years. Did you think 12 years ago when you guys got married, you would be in the situation you are right now financially? No, never thought that. Okay, so what did you think life would look like after being married for 12 years? I thought 12 years later we would be in da-da-da-da-da. Okay, so if you don't do anything differently now, what's life going to look like 12 years from now? Oh, probably the same. So what alternatives do you have? What choices? Not a lot. So maybe this is something you ought to entertain and support your husband. Yeah, that does kind of make sense. And then we would have that conversation. Then I would be like, oh, that guy's wife I like because she's positive, she's supportive. Oh, she is super negative. You can pray for him. Nothing's going to happen with him because she is such a negative. So this model of getting to know your guys just last week, was it last week when I was making the omelets for people? I don't know what it was. Yeah, maybe a week and a half ago, I'm making omelets. I made 100 omelets that day for two hours. I'm not going to front. They were pretty good. You know what was the one thing about making the omelets? Every omelet takes about two minutes to make. It takes about a minute and a half to make. You know what time I had? I had a minute and a half to two minutes to get to know you. So where are you from? What's your background? How long have you been with us? What do you do here? I'm an engineer of yours. What else do you do?