Positive leadership, a theory originating from positive psychology, has often been used as a synonym or category for various leadership styles (e.g., transformational, ethical, or authentic leadership). With the ongoing debate about the relevance of these leadership styles for future research, it is particularly important to reduce the conflation of concepts and acknowledge that positive leadership is a distinct leadership style and not a “catch-all” term for various leadership styles. Based on work design theory and incorporating self-determination theory, we argue that positive leadership directly and indirectly influences affective commitment, which is a relevant outcome in times of skilled labor shortages. We hypothesize that psychological need satisfaction and well-being act individually and, as an extension of work design theory, as serial mediators between positive leadership and affective commitment. We conduct a two-wave-study with 282 employees of a German company in the finance and insurance sector to test the proposed effects. The results suggest that positive leadership improves affective commitment. Additionally, psychological need satisfaction and well-being mediate this relationship individually and serially. Overall, our study underlines the importance of positive leadership as a relevant leadership style and contributes to the research fields of work design theory and self-determination theory.