Founder

I have spent my career looking at the same problem from wider and wider rooms.

What does the work require? What is getting in the way? And is the real constraint inside the person, between people, or in the system around them?

I’m Nayli Russo Long, founder and CEO of Russo Leadership.

Strategic OperatorAdvisorResearcherSpeaker

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Nayli Russo Long, founder and CEO of Russo Leadership

The Through-Line

Each room taught me to see something the previous one could not.

01

Clinical Healthcare

The work

Precision, accountability, and decisions with real consequences.

02

Operations

The process

Why do the same problems keep producing the same outcomes?

03

Operational Excellence

The system

Root cause before prescription.

04

Office of the President

The enterprise

Strategy, authority, resources, politics, information, and execution.

05

Major League Baseball

The whole under pressure

Strategy, economics, organization, people, leadership, and performance moving at once.

The roles changed. The field of view kept getting wider.

Operator Experience

My work has rarely stayed inside one function.

The work expanded from strategy into the systems required to make strategy executable.

President / Enterprise

Strategy + Economics

PlanningBusiness performanceRevenueCostResource allocation

Operating Model

Decision rightsGovernanceProcessOperating cadence

Organization + People

StructureStaffingTalentPerformanceSuccession

Leadership

Executive effectivenessAccountabilityDevelopmentCulture

Execution Systems

KPIsDashboardsBusiness plansReviewsImplementation

Business + Baseball Operations

PlanningResourcesStaffingShared infrastructure

The value was rarely inside one box. It was usually between them.

An Earlier Operating Lesson

Before I was an executive, I was an oboist.

An orchestra gave me my first experience of being responsible for one part inside a system much larger than myself.

The conductor cannot play the instrument for the musician.

The musician owns the part.

But someone still has to hear the whole.

I do not need to be the expert in every instrument. I need to hear where the system is breaking.

That is still how I work with organizations today.

Nayli Russo Long playing English horn with the CAF Symphony on tour

English horn, CAF Symphony tour.

The Question Operating Experience Could Not Answer

What happens when a leader knows what to do, but the room changes what it costs to do it?

That question became Identity in the Room™, my ongoing qualitative research into identity, authority, judgment, and leadership under changing conditions.

52 Interviews Two Waves Ongoing Research

The research produced The Authorship-Permission Model™.

Explore the Research

How I Work

Small footprint. High access. Practical outputs.

Direct

Work with the people accountable for the outcome.

Confidential

Make room for what cannot be said in the larger room.

Data-Grounded

Start with the organization that actually exists.

Integrated

Connect business, organization, people, and leadership.

Decision-Oriented

Turn analysis into tradeoffs, ownership, and action.

The work should strengthen internal leadership, not create another permanent layer around it.

Russo Leadership

Today, the work operates at three levels.

Develop Leaders

Can leaders access and use what the role requires?

Strengthen Teams

Can the people responsible for the work execute together?

Design Organizations

Is the organization designed for where the business is going?

Three places performance can break. One diagnostic lens.

Explore Our Work
Nayli Russo Long during a Russo Leadership session

Nayli Russo Long, PharmD, MBA

  • Founder & CEO, Russo Leadership
  • Former VP, People & Strategy, Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Former VP, Strategy, Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Former Chief of Staff, Office of the President, Highmark
  • Healthcare Operator + Clinical Pharmacist
  • Researcher, Identity in the Room™
  • Board Chair, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
  • Former Professional Oboist

Selected areas of experience

Enterprise StrategyBusiness PlanningOrganizational PerformanceOperating ModelOrganization DesignDecision RightsExecutive AdvisoryLeadership SystemsTeam EffectivenessResource AllocationPerformance ManagementResearch

Start With the Real Problem

You do not need to know which service you need before we talk.

If something keeps repeating, execution feels harder than it should, or the organization no longer fits what the business requires, that is enough to begin.

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Leadership That Holds.