A lot of the signals are cold, aloof, passive aggressive, disgruntled, dismissive, insincere, immodest, fake, insecure, uncultured, ignorant, insensitive, etc. That's just the human condition. Even if we don't mean them as such they can be interpreted as such by other insecure, insincere, imposter syndrome types.
Put a bunch of people in a room and the signals get amplified, it's the basis of reality television.
Combined, the signals whisper "you don't belong here."
Your manager is giving you a signal by wearing running shoes to your 1:1. What does it mean? How can you interpret it?
Your founder is giving a signal by walking in with a coffee. Again what does it mean?
Your VC is giving a signal by his haircut. Your project manager is giving a signal by her exposed skin. Your developers are giving signals through their man boobs.
All of these signals are wretched and don't entice quality people to stick around because they stink of belligerence.
In an honest open and transparent environment the signals align with the values and people don't need to wallow in cognitive dissonance until their minds crack under the pressure to conform, because fundamentally people will do almost anything to be accepted by a group, and when your job depends on fitting in the company has a lot of leverage over you to essentially milk you for your efforts in exchange for keeping you around.
Downvote if you are triggered by man boobs.