the context of the article is that as a manager, you can say that you value one thing all day long and do lip service to this hyper-idealistic set of goals... b

the context of the article is that as a manager, you can say that you value one thing all day long and do lip service to this hyper-idealistic set of goals... but that people are going to intuitively sense what is actually important to that person by what they incentivize and hold important through actions. an exaggerated example would be a manager saying that they value communication and talking through problems, they can proselytize about the values they think a team should have all day and night. But when everyone under that person sees that person consistently yelling or going off on people when they try to communicate with them about a problem... we are probably just going to shut that person out or hide things from them because its not worth the stress of trying to communicate with that person. this isn't about people striving to please their boss, its about perverse incentive structures and your superiors words and actions matching.