In Making Diversity Work: Seven Steps for Defeating Bias in the Workplace (Dearborn Trade Publishing, October 2003), Thiederman defines bias as "that tendency to prejudge others according to the group to which they belong," and specifies that "no one group is more a beneficiary or more a target than another."

According to Thiederman, it is essential to identify and remove biases that inhibit the business' growth and success -- particularly for accountants, who have an increasingly diverse audience. In an interview with SmartPros, she explained how to recognize and defeat bias.

Are you biased?
Thiederman explained that biases are a survival tactic that too often get in the way of reality. Fortunately, biases are easy to recognize simply by paying attention to your thoughts and reactions to people. For example, does a particular name in your appointment book conjure up any assumptions? Do you think you're going to have trouble with a client that fits the demographic profile of another that you had trouble with last month? Any negative thought at all is a hint to the bias that you might have beneath it, said Thiederman.

"One key reason it's so important to get your biases out of the way and dealing with customers different from you, particularly within the immigrant community (which is tight-knit), is that the word will spread quickly that you have treated them appropriately," she said. "The gorgeousness of dealing with someone who is different and getting your biases out of the way is that you will treat them better and they will tell their friends and community members," Thiederman added.

To combat your biases,  Thiederman recommended a simple process:

1. Be aware. "Don't kick yourself for having that thought. Having biases does not make us bad people." Thiederman said knowing where that bias comes from is an important step.
2. Question where the bias originated. Ask yourself, why am I thinking this and oftentimes it will take you just a moment to understand. "It helps so much to go through this dissection process, because 99 percent of the time you discover the foundation for the bias is weak," said Thiederman.
3. Set the bias aside and move on. While ignoring a bias does not make it disappear, it does allow for you to have a new and positive experience with someone. Theiderman said moving beyond the bias is a mechanical process. And the odds are overwhelming that your bias will be wrong, in turn weakening the bias.

Thiederman added that biases cause not only lost clientele and faded profits, but they waste time, too. When you don't communicate properly or spend too much nervous energy on a bias, you're not focusing on the client before you.