By not getting abruptly fired in the first place. He ultimately survived with the backing of the investors, but he didn't come out of this looking amazing. He clearly had issues with a number of the board members and appears to have been caught totally off guard by the firing, which isn't a great look.

I think the old board came out of this looking even worse, but that doesn't mean Altman ended up better off than if he had managed things better from the start.