UKH

So I need to climb a steel pole, it's high enough that I want to add protection. 

Lightly textured surface and uniformly round 

Any ideas of protection? I thought about looking nylon slings around and around until they pull tight almost like a prusick.

Don't ask why.....

I can’t really add any other wildly different options, but would suggest you test bits of rope with Blake’s hitches, I suspect that may bite better than slings. If using slings, klemheist would probably be best. IGKT may be able to help, and ABOK may also have other options (I could check in a few days)

Wow, steady on, this is UKC and we most definitely *need* to know why...

Magnets! 

 Adam Kay's book, 'this is going to hurt', has an incident he attended where a man slid down a lamp post and managed to entirely de-glove his penis, leaving him with little more than the urethra. He describes it as looking like a limp piece of spaghetti dipped in bolognese sauce. I note you posted at 23:35 last night, I hope I'm not too late.

Perhaps some of those thick gym/physio rubber therabands double larksfooted around the pole?  Could provide enough friction to grip?

Are you going pole dancing?

You need an oversized version of a Grivel easy slider. 

I've climbed varnished wood poles by using long slings wrapped into a klemheist (the prussick where you pass the bottom loop up through the top one to finish). This held fine, although if this is in a workplace scenario, probably won't cut the mustard! In that case, you can get bolt on step brackets like the kind you see on telegraph poles. 

It is possible to prusik up a steel pole in a similar fashion to a rope.  Practice going up (and down again) close to the ground first!

Not so sure about using some variation on a prusik for lead protection though, and it would be all but impossible to sort out one-handed.

What size is the pole?  There are scaffold clamps readily available that will fit a diameter from 48mm up to about 51mm (the latter being a bit more specialist - regular scaffold poles are at the bottom end of that size range). A half-coupler with an eye bolt, and a wing-nut to nip it up by hand would be ideal.   You might also be able to find similar in a couple of other sizes, or perhaps you could contrive something with a U-bolt and a plate.

Well you didn't hear the above from me then.
If it's for work, none of the suggestions you've had here are going to be pukka really.  You don't have the same right to do something ridiculous and hurt yourself that you do away from work.

A Ladder? Or lash sections of a collapsible ladder to the pole. Clip protection to the top of each ladder section.

here's the best technique; looks like a piece of piss:

https://youtu.be/5iLKBZONZo4?t=1m48s

 If its possible to lean a ladder against the pole it would be a good idea to attach a sling above the top rung so that the pole can push in to it. It will sit better than on a rigid rung.

 Best of luck.

Thanks everybody

My plans were foiled by a nosey policeman who wanted to know what I was doing with climbing equipment and EU flags so near a Labour conference. 

Bugger

You should have told him that you were going to run an idea up the flagpole.