This study explores how perceived leadership support is experienced in relation to the well-being of early-career lecturers in Vietnamese higher education. Using a qualitative design, the study drew on semi-structured interviews with 15 early-career lecturers to examine everyday accounts of support, strain, and professional development. Participants described four interrelated pathways through which leadership support was associated with their well-being: relational recognition, developmental guidance, workload buffering, and autonomy-sensitive support. They reported that support was most helpful when leaders made them feel seen and valued, provided concrete and respectful guidance, and protected them from excessive workloads. At the same time, support was sometimes experienced ambivalently when it became overly controlling or carried implicit pressure to continually demonstrate their worth. These findings suggest that leadership support should not be treated as a uniformly positive institutional resource. Rather, it is a lived relational condition that may strengthen emotional security, professional confidence, and sustainable engagement while also producing fragile well-being when support constrains autonomy.