Mark Pope wants to be the ‘CLO’ of Kentucky basketball. What does that mean to him?
At a luncheon for community leaders in Louisville over the summer, Mark Pope sat on stage in one of his first major speaking engagements as the new University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach and talked about the evolution of his own leadership style.
The co-headliner of the event was Pat Kelsey — the new U of L men’s basketball coach — and the two future rivals listened intently as the other spoke, sharing the philosophies that helped bring them to this point in their careers.
Toward the beginning of the talk — still months away from his first game as Kentucky’s head coach — Pope was asked about the fundamentals of great leadership.
“When you step into these shoes, when you step into any leadership role — there’s immense pressure to try to be something else,” he said. “But being authentic is the best leadership strategy of all.”
To set up his larger point, Pope joked that it was “super dangerous” to invite he and Kelsey — both coaches known for their enthusiasm — to a lunchtime speaking event, quipping that the two of them might carry on until 7 p.m.
“One thing we can do is we can talk, right? But I think about this,” he continued, his voice shifting to a more serious tone. “I think about the C suite all the time. CEO and CMO and CFO and CIO. And really, I think the best leaders are CLOs — chief listening officers. I think that is a skill that is becoming increasingly lost in our leadership portfolios, and I think it’s tragic. Because I think the only way that we can lead is by listening.
“In my particular case, it’s really important that I listen to my staff.
If I’m up all the time — just barking out orders all the time — I’m missing out on the potential that we have to grow and the great ideas that are floating around the room, and the synergy that can happen on a staff. And if I spend all my time telling my players what to do, I can actually have no idea how to tell them what to do.”
As Pope conveyed this thought, many in the crowd of nearly 1,500 attendees nodded along with him. Up on the stage, Kelsey clearly took it in, as well. When it was his turn to speak, the Louisville coach postponed his reply to the next question in order to return to Pope’s point first.
“You come to something like this to learn, right?” Kelsey said. “I’ll go and take back to my staff: CLO. I have a title as Head Basketball Coach, but I’m gonna talk to them about the chief listening officer. Mark said it exactly right. … He said ‘CLO’ — I am one of those now.”
