Hmmm, it seems to me that if an executive is reaching across the organization for that kind of thing, that's a bad sign. It means the executive doesn't trust their leadership team (in the case of a skip-level) or their peer organization (in the case of a dotted-line meeting).

That said, bad signs don't always mean bad things; as the author indicated a "Loyalty check" can range from "Just wanted to check in on how things are going and hear some detailed updates straight from the folks at the coal-face" (very healthy and normal) to "So-and-so is getting ready to betray our entire organization and I want you to plug this anonymous USB key into their computer".