Most first-time CEOs tend to play it safe. That, however, could be a mistake. CEOs who succeed focus on their company’s performance, its culture and employee engagement in a way where everybody is driven to cater to the customer at the frontlines. Those were among the insights that helped Andrew Silvernail, CEO of IDEX, a Lake Forest, Ill.-based maker of specialized fluidics systems and components, and fire and safety products. Silvernail shared these lessons in a conversation with Elena Lytkina Botelho, co-author of The CEO Next Door , and Knowledge at Wharton. Silvernail is one of the leaders featured in the book. Edited excerpts from the conversation follow. (You can listen to a complete podcast of the discussion using the player at the top of this page.) Knowledge at Wharton: Elena, when we spoke about a year ago about your research on the CEO Genome Project , you told us about four behaviors that define great leaders. Your book, The CEO Next Door , is about those behaviors and much else.…