Leadership during times of change

Leadership During Times of Change

Leading an organization through a crisis tests everything a leader believes about their business and their people. In this episode of True to Form, host Tim Sawyer talks with Pat Altavilla, pioneer in aesthetics and CEO of Suneva Medical, about how the most challenging stretch in recent industry history shaped the company and what it revealed about leadership under pressure. It is a frank conversation about protecting people, serving customers, and emerging stronger from uncertainty.

Confronting the Unthinkable

Altavilla describes the surreal experience of being confronted in March 2020 with the prospect of having to stop doing business and reassess every next step. He had been appointed CEO just one year earlier, and the early weeks were the most frightening: no one knew how long the disruption would last or what it would ultimately mean for the business, the country, or the people involved. There was, as he wryly notes, no chapter in the CEO handbook for a pandemic.

Two Commitments That Guided Every Decision

Amid the uncertainty, Altavilla anchored his leadership in two clear priorities that cut through the chaos.

• Protect the employees. His first commitment was to shield his people from as much hardship as possible, recognizing that the organization's strength rested on them.
• Take care of customers. His second was ensuring that customers were properly supported through an unprecedented period, even when many of them faced existential challenges of their own.

These commitments gave the company a stable framework for decision-making when almost nothing else was certain.

Investing in People When Others Retreated

One of the boldest moves Altavilla made was keeping his entire sales organization intact throughout the pandemic, even as many companies put staff on contract or cut teams in panic mode. Rather than retreating, Suneva used the downtime to dig in and improve, with teams becoming the best they could be at their respective crafts. Sawyer underscores how significant and uncommon this was, given how many sales forces vanished during that period.

Turning Downtime Into Preparation

The decision to retain and develop the team reflected a belief that the crisis was temporary and that the organizations best prepared to serve customers on the other side would win. By investing in skills and readiness during the slowdown, the company positioned itself to accelerate as demand returned.

Leadership Lessons That Endure

Altavilla's reflections offer a template for leading through any period of upheaval, not just a pandemic. The core principles are about clarity, commitment, and composure.

• Lead with your values. Clear commitments to people and customers simplify hard decisions.
• Resist panic. Reactive cuts can hollow out the capabilities a business needs to recover.
• Use adversity to improve. Slowdowns are an opportunity to sharpen skills and prepare for the rebound.
• Stay committed to your people. Loyalty during hard times builds the trust and capability that drive future success.

Key Takeaways for Practice Owners

• Anchor decisions in clear priorities. Protecting people and customers provides direction amid uncertainty.
• Avoid panic-driven cuts. Preserving your team protects long-term capability.
• Treat downturns as preparation time. Invest in skills so you can accelerate when demand returns.
• Lead with loyalty and composure. How you lead in a crisis defines the organization that emerges from it.

Altavilla's experience is a powerful reminder that leadership during times of change is less about having all the answers and more about staying true to a clear set of commitments and investing in the people who will carry the organization forward.